Lost
by lllBluebirdlll
Summary: Someone is attempting to break into the SSC and KITT is forced to run away and leave Mike and the others behind, he is offered a deal that allows him to save his friends, now the question is: will they be able to save him on time?
1. Chapter 1

**This is a short little intro to this idea I had a bit ago but I just recently got the motivation to actually turn it into a story, please follow/fav/review if any of you guys find it interesting so that I decide whether or not to keep it up since it's just planned to be a short story (but could possibly evolve into something slightly bigger) anyway enough talk, on with the story.**

-25 days after the Victor Galt mission-

It was an early morning, the streets were damp from a storm that had hit during the night and the clouds still hung in the varying colors of the early morning sky. In the middle of a large fenced off area a seemingly abandoned airplane hangar stood, the old appearance hiding its true purpose from curious eyes.

The main chamber of the SSC remained mostly dark, the lights were still dimmed out to their night setting per their near 24/7 occupant, five members now conformed the Foundation for law and government of which four were at least a couple more hours from waking up while the remaining one had just started his daily routine. In the middle of the still dark room a bright scarlet red scanner came to life with a low whooshing sound as the lights in the room started to slowly increase their intensity up until they were back at their normal strength.

The Knight Industries Three Thousand, a marvel of modern engineering and science, leading ground in artificial intelligence and an overall miracle of technology. Since his first activation a little over a year ago he had gone through many changes and an overall evolution in both equipment, abilities and personality; he himself might not admit it and sometimes even hardly notice it but his human friends and mostly his driver would argue that he had changed massively since they first met.

KITT stretched inside his own systems as he booted back up, making a self-diagnostic as he did so out of habit more than need, once he was done he noticed a slight disturbance in the perimeter sensors but checking the exterior cameras there was nothing that looked out of the ordinary; part of him wanted to leave it as a random system malfunction or glitch but since he himself had recently gone over all of the complex's defenses with Sarah not long ago a malfunction like that was quite unlikely…

Three weeks, over three weeks had passed since his run in with Victor Galt and even with the treatment he still couldn't go through a full night of sleep without waking up after accidentally twisting the wrong way and making at least one of his remaining bruises ache in protest, this time around it had been in one of his arms and after a glance at the digital clock he sat up with a groan 'why did he had to drink that damn serum…'

Standing up from his bed Mike walked out of the room and through the hallways, stopping by the kitchen he grabbed a bottle of iced coffee from the fridge before heading over to the main chamber. Peeking his head around the corner he spotted the jet black Shelby in his place, scanner tracking back and forth slowly; giving away the fact that he was focused on something.

Mike's suspicion was confirmed when he stepped openly into the room and received no greeting from the AI so he went over and walked around him, stopping once he was right behind. He took a sip of the iced coffee before leaning down to peek through his rear window to get a look at what had him focused enough to not notice him.

From his place he really couldn't see much of what the car had on his HUD but he was pretty sure that a few of the screens he had up were the exterior camera feeds from the complex which created a slight feel of worry in the pit of his stomach, had something bad happened? Was someone outside?

"KITT?"

the AI did a virtual jump in himself hearing his driver's voice, he shoved the files he had open away as Mike walked around him "M-Michael, I'm sorry I didn't see you come in"

"yeah…I noticed, is everything okay KITT? Saw you checking the outside cameras"

In all honesty he had not been able to see anything out of the ordinary or even detect any other anomalies in any of the sensors other than that specific one, he did not want to trouble Mike with what most likely had just been a malfunction this early in the morning "It's nothing serious. You're up early and I'm almost certain you were woken up again by one of your injuries from our last mission, correct?"

Pulling a chair over from the main desk to be in front of the car he slowly sat down to avoid any further discomfort "Yeah, it's not too bad, especially compared to how it was the day after but man did the guy do a number on me"

"And it would've been much worse had I not arrived when I did"

"Oh I'm sure of that" he took another sip of his coffee and the conversation started to jump from subject to subject, eventually the rest of the team woke up and one by one made their way to Mike and KITT. The usual bickering and friendly conversation amongst themselves started then and the AI was content with just watching and listening with the occasional comment up until another of the perimeter alarms, this time on the back of the complex, caught his attention.

"Sarah I have detected one of the perimeter alarms of the back end of the complex go off" he accessed the main screen and displayed the SSC's perimeter blueprint and highlighted the area where the disturbance had happened as well as the camera feeds in the same area

"Well the cameras aren't really showing anything out of the ordinary, maybe it's just a malfunction?"

"I would say it was, but earlier this morning there was a similar problem in the front sensors and the cameras showed nothing, having the same malfunction twice in the same day not long after we went over the systems seems to be very unlikely"

Zoe then went over to one of the computers and started accessing the video logs from earlier, watching the replay up until the present time "Well if there IS someone out there and they're smart enough to activate the sensors without being seen I say that there might even be a possibility that they managed to make a loop on our cameras"

At this Billy nearly jumped from his place "That's impossible, they're secured and closed off I worked on their initial setup when I first joined Knight Industries"

"Do you have any other hypothesis?"

"well…not really but I don't think they managed to hijack our cameras"

As the two kept arguing Sarah went over to Mike, who was standing next to KITT's gimbal still wearing the loose shirt and pants he used to sleep "Mike could you go get changed? I have a bad feeling about this" the man nodded and half trotted off, the tech then turned to the Mustang "KITT, if the cameras are on a loop that we can't detect if there is anything out there, the only way to see what's out there is to go, I need you to check the back perimeter of the complex and report anything out of the ordinary"

With a flash of his scanner KITT accessed his gimbal and turned around, opening the doors to the outside and speeding out of the large room.

Once right outside of the tunnel he slowed down as he made his way around the back, he had detected the first alarm here but even on scanners everything did look normal, there were no tire tracks that he could detect other than his own and no vehicles or people were in sight so he hurried out and around the back…

Sarah stood in the main chamber behind Billy and Zoe as they both went over the last few hours of footage and data from all perimeter sensors and alarms, there was no way they had two malfunctions like that in a single day. On a side screen she had KITT's video feed and so far she didn't see anything that called her attention.

She turned around and paced in frustration at not knowing what was happening and it was just then that she noticed that the main entry door for KITT hadn't closed yet, walking over to one of the panels on the gimbal she entered the command to shut the door but even after a few seconds the door remained open "guys?"

The two techs stopped what they were doing and turned around

"we have to go…now"

noticing the serious tone in her voice Billy's face paled considerably at her words "w-why are you saying that Sarah?"

"perimeter malfunctions and now the entry door won't shut down? KITT can't see anything wrong outside so that means that-"

"-That whoever's doing it is already inside…"


	2. Chapter 2

**Well first of all I'd like to thank those that followed/liked/reviewed on the first chapter, I'm glad to see that some of you guys are interested in this and for that I decided to keep it going, on with the story!**

The trio remained silent as they let the reality of their situation sink in before rushing to shut down and pack their laptops as well as encrypt and secure the main computer, Mike came in half-way through and stood at the edge of the hallway in confusion until Sarah all but shouted at him from across the room to pack everything he could. it didn't take long for him to guess that something was horribly wrong and that whatever it was they needed to leave asap.

A minute later KITT arrived at the rear entrance to the complex, scanners set on full range he was quite puzzled when once again he did not get anything strange, accessing his communications to report back to Sarah he stopped when something caught his attention around the corner of the building for a fraction of a second; focusing his scanners on that specific area he still got nothing back and at this point he got a bad feeling about all that had happened this morning so far this morning.

Opening his link to the SSC's computer the AI had to wait a few seconds, which it on itself was strange, instead of receiving the link's confirmation he found it to be shut down…shut down? Why would it be shut down?

As worry crept its way into his processor he accessed the interior cameras of the SSC's main chamber to find everyone scrambling about and presumably packing and shutting down or locking computers, another set of camera views called his attention upon seeing movement in the background so he then focused on those; dread made its way into his processor at the sight of a group of eight armed men wearing protective gear making their way through the hallways.

At this point KITT tried contacting Michael through his earpiece only to find out that the man did not have it on. cursing his inability to contact his friends to warn them of the impending danger he slid his back end around in a drift and started to race back towards the front entrance, hoping to get back before anything bad happened.

The four had finished locking the computers and packing their laptops, Mike was about to leave the room to get his earpiece to contact KITT but was instantly stopped when he came literally face to face with a group of armed men as then entered the room, surrounding them "FBI freeze, hands where we can see them!"

Instantly they froze, FBI? The confusion was clear on their faces and Sarah was the first one to ask the question plaguing the four's heads "FBI? Why are you here? we work WITH you guys"

The apparent team leader spoke up "Not anymore, a vote was passed earlier this week to disband your organization Miss Grayman"

"A vote?! what vote and why were we not informed of this? who's responsible for this?!"

"The other government agencies see your organization as a liability, you have been recorded to interfere with official government operations before and this will no longer be tolerated"

"We interfered, yes, but it was to help!, if it wasn't because of our interference you would've never solved those cases in time if ever"

"Which is why we've been ordered to close this operation down and provide the rest of our agencies with your technology, you will no longer be needed but we require the four of you and the Knight Three Thousand to come with us"

As if on cue the sound of a powerful engine echoed through the open tunnel doors and KITT came into view, screeching to a halt right at the edge of the tunnel upon seeing the group with their guns pointed at his friends; core programming kicking in and trying to think of a possible solution.

The ex-army ranger glanced between Sarah and KITT, worry clearly visible on his face, Sarah knew what they had to do now and Mike was the only one that could give the order, which put him on a dangerous position considering he was still not fully recovered and that they had guns pointed directly at them.

Mike looked at KITT where he stood, three of the men that had infiltrated the SSC had their guns pointed towards the Shelby and he noticed how his scanner tracked back and forth at a quicker pace than normal which was a clear giveaway to him, Sarah, Billy and Zoe of his worry. These people wanted to take KITT and replicate him to have his capabilities at hand for the other government agencies, which it on itself was a bad idea, but over that he knew the process to replicate the code of such a well formed AI like KITT would more than likely be reverse engineering and by consequence that would end with his deactivation…he was not about to stand by and let that happen if he could do something about it.

Mike looked straight at KITT with a serious expression on his face "KITT?"

The AI flashed his scanner slightly in acknowledgement

"Get out of here, now"

Get out? And leave them defenseless with the group of armed men? he remained quiet for a few seconds as he tried to understand the reason behind his driver's request "Mike?"

"I want you to leave, right now. It's an order KITT" the AI remained silent as his scanner tracked slightly faster, behind him Mike heard the team leader call something on the radio, he needed to get him to leave now before anything else happened.

he glanced at Sarah, he knew KITT's core programming was arguing strongly against leaving as well as obeying his order since he was the driver but right not it might be the best chance they have at solving this whole mess.

"Michael…?"

He looked back at the car "We'll find you KITT, don't worry" at this point the three men were closing in on the Shelby

The AI's conflicting programming kept him from taking any actions he really didn't want to leave his driver and the others alone but he trusted Mike so if he was telling him to leave there had to be a good reason behind it...right? "Michael I don't think-"

"Go!"

The sound of screeching tires combined with the sudden gunfire filled the room as the Mustang backed out of the tunnel, reaching the hangar he pulled a perfectly executed J-turn before speeding towards the partially open hangar doors, two vans blocked his exit and three squad cars were right outside. There were people inside the vans so he could not ram them to get through so instead he charged his turbo boost and calculated the space he needed before deploying it; smoothly gliding over the vans he landed and continued to race off as the three cars parked outside took off after him.

Up until reaching the highway the cars remained close behind him and two more had joined the pursuit; he knew what he had to do to lose them then so, he needed to at least maintain his speed and hopefully once he was far enough away his pursuers would fall back; the Mustang angled his turbo boost directly behind him as he built it up, releasing it in a way that it gave him an extra sudden burst of speed that put some good distance between him and his pursuers. Upon command panels switched and slid over each other in calculated movements as they rearranged themselves in the shape of his attack mode, allowing him to pull away definitely.

Sarah sat in silence on the back of the van that was transporting her and the others to an unknown location, she hoped that her lock-down on the SSC's computers had been enough to keep anyone from accessing their files; not because of the records from their cases but because if they did manage to break the encryption and access the files they would have all of KITT's specs and info, not enough to replicate him but enough to make their hunt for him an easy task.

She looked over at Mike in front of her and noticed his worried expression, he was probably just as worried about the AI as she was and how couldn't he? He's KITT's driver, she still remembered how determined he was on saving him when Torres shut him down, that was the most determined she'd ever seen him. There was no doubt in her mind that this occasion would be no different…

For the entire drive the four were quiet, a thousand questions going through their heads all revolving around why would the other government branches want them shut down and have KITT's technology copied; did they not learn anything from the whole KARR incident?

Whatever their motives were she was going to find out and get everything fixed and back to normal, she had more than enough arguments to back herself up and by god was she going to stand up for her father's life work. The drive was about two hours long but they reached the nearest city where the four of them were put in a fairly large room to wait. Mike paced back and forth wondering not for the first time if KITT had escaped from his pursuers, he didn't really care what happened to him now since worst case scenario they would just not be allowed to continue their work while in the AI's case things could take a big turn for the worse; with all possible scenarios playing over in his head another big question popped at the back of his mind: how did this even happen?

After a while of pacing and sitting in worried silence a man and a woman entered the room, the woman carrying a large folder that could barely contain the many papers inside. Sarah stood up upon seeing the familiar face as the other three remained frozen; the man placed the folder on the table as he eyed the three people in front of him "I'm sorry it had to be like this Sarah…but they left me no choice"

 **I'd like to insert a little extra here, I'm trying to make a small little representation of a scene for each chapter (excluding the first one) so for this one you can click 'here' to go to the scene itself or go my profile where my DA page is linked or simply go to Deviant Art on google and search up my user 'lllBluebirdlll' to go to the scene created for a small bit of this chapter 3**


	3. Chapter 3

The jet black Mustang waved around cars as he practically flew through the highway, he had lost the cruisers but knowing the government he doubted they were the only source they had to locate him, as he reached a tunnel he deactivated all of his incoming and outgoing signals to remain invisible as he slowed down and transformed into a regular silver GT Mustang. Slowing down to regular cruising speeds he tinted his windows fully upon exiting the tunnel; he drove aimlessly as he thought of a possible solution to his current situation which he now realized had more than one problem: first of all he couldn't be found by any of the government organizations, he had to find a way to contact Mike and the others without being discovered and he had to at least find some sort of help somewhere from someone he could trust.

This last problem seemed like it could be easily solved seeing as he knew of at least two people he could at least trust enough to be able to hide with until he could come up with a solution…then again since they had been on relatively recent cases they could seem like obvious places for him to be IF the the FBI managed to break through the safe lock on the SSC and gain access to their files.

A sigh escaped through his vents as the few options he had come up with were almost instantly shut down. A few minutes later he was pulled from his thoughts to the sound of helicopter blades, unsurprisingly an FBI helicopter flew by at low altitude, following the highway in what most likely was a search for him; since there was no change in course or speed when they flew over him he was relieved to know that his disguise had worked, at least for the time being.

He had been woken up about an hour ago to an alarm, the source being peculiar enough to catch his attention. After some minutes of doing some research and stumbling across footage of the present situation he decided that it was finally time to come out of hiding, his friend might not like the idea too much due to his more personal connection but he way he saw it this was the only way to solve this whole mess.

"Michael? Wake up, we have an emergency"

there were a few groans from the mess of blankets and pillows before a proper response came through "emergency? What could possibly be an emergency for us right now?"

"not for us…it's them"

a little more alert now the man sat on the edge of the bed and grabbed the com-link that had been resting on the nightstand "what's wrong?"

"by the information I have gathered the SSC was broken into by the FBI, I don't know the reason for it yet but I do know that their staff has been taken into custody and that KITT is currently being pursued by the FBI"

"why would he run off when the others needed him?"

"I don't know, but whatever the reason was we still need to find him and hopefully get some answers"

"and how are you planning to do that? He's probably shut off his signal to remain hidden from the FBI"

"first of all I can still know where he is based on a primal connection we share, I've had it ever since he was first activated but I doubt he knows about it; secondly: we're not finding him, he'll be finding us"

after a few hours of aimlessly driving through different highways he finally reached a small town on the neighboring state, he stopped on a moderately full parking lot to avoid getting any unwanted attention. For the longest time he just stood there in silence, trying to fully wrap his processor around what had happened as he too wondered why had this happened; as he sat there under the late morning sun his processor started to drift over to his friends, where were they? Were they okay?

He wanted to get in contact with them somehow but he knew that doing so would leave him completely exposed to being discovered. Mike had ordered him to run away and stay hidden and by contacting them he would be doing the complete opposite. For all intents and purposes he had no viable options or solutions and to make matters worse his fuel tank was nearly empty, he would remain active even without fuel but he would not be able to use his engine or most of his mechanical functions which inevitably rendered him useless in case he needed to run.

For the following hours he remained in his place, watching people go around, he decided he wouldn't be moving unless it was absolutely necessary in order to make his fuel last as long as possible since he had no idea when would Mike or the others be able to contact him, he would also remain in this current form for as long as it served to hide him.

As the day started to wear on and sunset approached the parking lot started to empty out, eventually it would only be him left so he had to start thinking about moving to a more permanent place. He turned on his engine in silent mode but kept his lights off as he moved out of the parking lot, turning them on only once he had hit the streets.

As he drove looking for a place to park he detected a faint signal emanating from deep within his own systems, a communication link he had not noticed until now had been activated; he couldn't identify the origin or what it meant but he knew one thing: it was emitting a heavily encrypted homing signal that, to his surprise, he was able to access. Could Sarah or any of the other have found a way to contact him safely? Or could this be a trap?

He realized then that he had been stopped in the middle of the street and several angry drivers had honked and waved around him so before causing any more disturbances he set himself to follow the signal.

Deep inside him he was playing with the possibility that this was in fact a trap and that he was just wasting precious fuel on a lost cause but a bigger part of him just had a feeling this could be a solution to at least one of his problems. Having no other ideas or options he decided to take the risk and follow the signal.

The black Mustang drove through the city, street lights reflecting off of his silver finish. As he got closer to the source of the signal he became slightly weary since he had reached the more abandoned outskirts of the small town, few street lights were working which forced most of his surroundings into darkness.

Turning into another single lane street the signal then suddenly stopped, his scarlet red scanner tracked back and forth at a quick pace in agitation as he scanned his surroundings, detecting only one person in front of him; driving forwards until his headlights managed to reveal who the man was he instantly stopped. "Michael Knight?"

"KITT, it's nice to see you again, although I'd wish it were under different circumstances"

"As do I…I have to ask, how did you manage to find me? All my signals have been shut down since this morning"

"I believe that's not a question for me to answer, kitt?"

the AI was confused for a second, did he expect him to answer? His confusion turned to shock when from behind him a ruby red scanner came to life, the black Trans am rolled forwards then until he was right next to Michael and his front end was also illuminated by the Mustang's headlights.

Kit watched as his successor recognized Michael, he had his signal blocked to avoid detection so he had no idea he was just a few meters in front of him, the official files said he had been dismantled but only few knew that in reality he had gone into hiding with Michael after the original FLAG's shutdown so of course KITT was confused when Michael called him. Slowly he rolled forwards and turned on his scanner, the slightly quicker pace of the Three Thousand's scanner speed indicated that he had been surprised by his presence just as he thought he would be.

"Hello…KITT, it's good to finally meet you"

KITT was taken by surprise upon seeing his predecessor fine and well after he read the last few files of the original FLAG in which they specified that he had been dismantled, of all the possibilities that this signal he had been following could lead him to this was not even one he'd dare to consider "The feeling is mutual, and rather surprising to say the least"

"ah, yeah" he virtually glanced at Michael who was now leaning against his side "we're sorry about not telling you or the others about it but at the time we felt that the fewer people that knew about us, or more specifically me, the better. I'm sure you understand"

"I do, there is nothing to be sorry about. And I have to say that I am glad that you made contact at this particular time"

"we…we know about what happened this morning, we knew that you would be needing all the help you could get to help your friends and driver out of this situation"

"and for that I thank the both of you"

"we should get going now that it's dark, we'll be hard to track and if we hurry we can make it back to our hideout without anyone knowing either of us were even here"

"for the time being I believe that would be our best course of action"

Hearing this Michael stood straight and walked around to kitt's driver's side "well we better get going then, we've got some distance to cover"

 **Once again thanks to those that left a review or followed the story, No scene is available for this one since I've been super busy all week but next chapter should have one for sure.**


	4. Chapter 4

The Mustang and Trans am moved through the dark back-roads until they reached the highway, they drove purely by their sensors since their lights had to remain off in order to conceal themselves in the darkness, at one point kitt slowed down to be side by side with the silver Mustang to ask a question that had been bothering him since he first saw him.

"KITT, I've been meaning to ask: what made Grayman change your original black to a silver coat? Yes black might get some attention during the day but it provides a perfect camouflage at night"

KITT realized at that moment that he was still in his silver GT shape, momentarily forgetting due to the recent surprising events "Oh, this is not my original model, I simply switched in order to remain hidden from any other government agencies that could be looking for me, I will switch back now in order to be better camouflaged in the dark"

Kitt was about to ask what he meant by that but before he could there was a low beeping sound a second before the silver Mustang's panels switched and folded into the car's frame as they were replaced by jet black colored panels that rearranged themselves in the shape of a Shelby GT 500 KR jet black Mustang with dual matte black racing stripes running down the middle, a striking cobra replacing the running horse and GT logos on the car.

Both kitt and Michael stared dumbfounded at what they had just witnessed, Michael had met KITT before but it was way back when he had been first activated, hell, he wasn't even on the Mustang body when that happened and all of his files had been particularly well secured and were nearly impossible to get access to without the proper code and clearance so even kitt had no idea of what capabilities his successor had; he had speculated based on previous knowledge and on his small talks with Grayman when KITT was merely a conglomeration of code but transformations and color change? Those were far from being on his list of possibilities.

After the first couple hours KITT received a warning from his fuel tank, he was down to his last half gallon and since he didn't know exactly where he was heading he figured that his only choice now was to ask for help. He contacted kitt through their link and waited for his response.

"yes?"

"I might need some assistance from Michael quite soon"

"why is that?"

"My fuel reserves are almost empty; I can still drive for another 90 kilometers before I have to stop but it is very important for us to find a gas station fast"

"hmm…I'll tell Michael about this while you find a gas station, lead the way there once you find one"

not even a minute later and KITT had already plotted the fastest route to the nearest gas station, he was glad to know that it was within the radius of fuel he had left even though he would be down to a quarter gallon by the time he reached it.

Shortly before arriving Michael switched cars and got to the gas station with KITT to avoid any possible suspicion, upon entering the cabin of the Mustang the man was surprised to see nothing but the orb on the dash to indicate the presence of the AI, compared to kitt's many buttons and switches, before he could say anything about it however KITT started driving again and the HUD displayed measurements for latitude and longitude on the edges of the windscreen along with speed and other data in the lower end of the windshield in front of the driver, on the top right corner was a red gauge with the 'low fuel' warning, displaying underneath the remaining distance KITT could travel before he was completely out of fuel; seeing all this Michael simply guessed that all the buttons and switches had been replaced by the electronic HUD in front of him.

Five minutes later and the Mustang was pulling up to the gas station, the pavement was wet from a previous rain, reflecting it's surroundings as the AI pulled into the designed space. After asking KITT how much could his fuel tank hold Michael went into the store and paid for the fuel, opening the gas cap and placing the nozzle he simply leaned against the side of the dispenser as he looked at the dark sky.

"So…how's Mike?"

"He's been doing quite well actually, we did have one of our hardest missions yet not long ago...he's still recovering from it." there was a pause from the AI then, Michael knew that the Mustang had mixed feelings, countless years with kitt had taught him how to read an AI's emotions; as faint as they were to the human eye. he could swear he saw the car shrink lower to the ground before he spoke again "I'm worried about him, about the others too"

letting his curiosity get the best of him he stood straight and crossed his arms as he looked over the Shelby "What happened this morning? Why did you leave them?"

"I left…not because I wanted to, I left because Mike ordered me to leave" a deep sigh made its way out his vents just strong enough for Michael to barely hear it in the silence of the night "in the early morning I had detected one of the exterior sensors of the base being triggered, I accessed the cameras but there was nothing on sight and I couldn't detect anything myself so I let it pass by as a simple malfunction, a few hours later when everyone was already up there was another sensor being triggered, this time on the back of the complex; Sarah instructed me to go out and investigate while Mike got changed in case anything happened

"As I scanned the back area of the hangar once I arrived I tried contacting the others inside but the link to the main computer had been shut down, at that moment I realized something was very wrong and I headed back as fast as I could, the main entry doors were open and I drove inside only to stop at the edge of the tunnel when I saw a group of armed FBI men with their guns set on Mike and the others. I didn't know what to do then and Mike started telling me to leave, to run away and escape but I didn't want to leave them without knowing what would happen…I left after Mike gave me the direct order, him being my driver I cannot disobey a direct order so I had no choice but to go

"as I was driving back out I had to jump over a set of vans covering the main entrance and short after I was being pursued until I was able to lose them on a highway, using a tunnel for cover I changed into the body I had when we first encountered today to remain hidden. That's all that has happened in the span of less than 24 hours"

a soft click from the fuel nozzle made Michael turn back to check on the dispenser that had now stopped pumping fuel before removing the thing and closing the fuel cap, he remained standing there as he looked over the jet black Mustang "We'll make sure to get them back KITT, don't worry, I'll make sure of that myself"

getting back inside KITT the two took off to where the Knight Two Thousand was waiting to switch Michael back, kitt had heard all the explanation of the events through his driver's com-link and he understood now just what had happened, his main question trying to figure out why KITT had left them being answered almost immediately.

The rest of the drive was spent in mostly silence since both AIs were constantly scanning a large perimeter around them as well as focusing on driving purely by sensors at speeds at which an unseen bump on the road could send either of them flying, eventually the sky turned from an almost black shade of blue to simply a dark blue just as the pair entered a heavily forested area. The AIs slowed down and waved through the trees and dirt, KITT having to adjust his suspension to go through rougher terrain since he could not follow the Trans am perfectly because his larger size wouldn't allow him to fit through certain rocks or trees. Without any big inconvenient the group arrived at a medium size log cabin facing a lake, a large garage big enough for three cars of considerable size sprouted from the back and was directly connected to the main house. On command the automatic doors opened and allowed the AIs to drive inside the dark garage, only once the door was fully closed did the lights inside the house turned on.

The garage was directly connected to the living room, no doors or walls to block it. The garage itself had a full wall lined with computers and equipment for kitt and there was even a couch opposite to the entrance, the living room was simple enough with a couple couches, a TV and a table with the kitchen and other rooms out of direct sight.

Michael climbed out of kitt and stretched out before turning to look at the Mustang as both cars cut out their engines.

"alright you two, I'm going to go make some calls while you try and find out why exactly did this happen, hopefully by morning we can have some progress"

"you should get some sleep Michael, plus I doubt that anyone will answer any calls at this hour"

he crossed his arms as he stared at the Trans am "I'll try and get them to answer, if I can't then I guess I'll get some rest before trying to call again at a more reasonable hour"

"Sounds like a plan"

"good luck you two"

as soon as Michael had left and disappeared into one of the adjacent rooms KITT se himself to find a way to contact Mike or any of the others, wherever they were they probably already knew exactly why the government itself wanted to bring FLAG down and at the time that was one of the main questions that were still plaguing his processor. His current train of thought was then interrupted by a file that had been sent over from the link she shared with the Knight Two thousand; curious, he turned to look at the Trans Am besides him

"May I ask what the file you sent me is about?"

"it's a scrambler program that I worked on for some time, I always use it to avoid detection even when connected to the internet or accessing restricted files, that's how I managed to stay hidden from your sensors earlier. Use it now and you'll be able to be online without the risk of being detected by those searching for you"

KITT thanked him for the program and immediately went back online, his first stop were the SSC's cameras, as he had expected the main chamber was full of FBI agents going through the computers; thanks to Sarah's quick action though every file had been locked under a heavy emergency encryption that would take even him quite some time to break.

Accessing the recent camera files he was able to follow the car that took Mike and the others by using several satellites and cameras until it arrived at its destination; great, at least now he knew where they were being kept, now all he had to do was figure out to either get them out or at the very least get in contact with one of them.

They had moved the four of them into a small guarded apartment for the night, good to know that at least they didn't treat them as criminals…Despite being moved there to be able to sleep in relative comfort during the night the group was far from being able to do so, they were worried about KITT, even more so after their talk where they had been held for pretty much the entire day.

-flashback-

The door closed behind the pair and the woman sat the files she was carrying on the table, a tired expression on her face

"It's nice to see the four of you after so long though I wish it were under different circumstances"

getting over her initial surprise Sarah walked around the table and greeted the woman with a hug "It's nice to see you too Carrie" she took a step back "I thought you had left the FBI though"

"that's what my father wanted after the whole Stevens incident, I had to leave active field work but at least I can take care of things around here"

"Do you know whose great idea it was to take us down in the first place?"

"Not really, I just overheard what was happening and I couldn't just sit there while it happened. I did everything I could to talk them out of this but they wouldn't listen to me…"

For over an hour the group discussed the situation, Carrie had explained to them how she had tried to defend FLAG's work by trying to make the other agencies' representatives see all of the good work they had done so far but they would always argue how it would be better if they all had access to the KR tech since it would mean they could all be as efficient as they were. Of course Sarah had jumped at the mere idea and tried defending her point by using the KARR example but she would need to bring those arguments up to the board of directors in order to really have a fighting chance.

Before leaving he gave them the good news that KITT had managed to get away and that so far no one knew where he had gone, the bad news was that they were still looking for him and somehow they were making some progress as to following his tracks; very slow progress mind you but progress nevertheless.

-end flashback-

Sarah paced back and forth by the table Billy and Zoe were working on, Billy had managed to sneak in his cellphone and both techs were working with what few resources they had to try and fix it so that they could make a call the people watching over the apartment and all incoming and outgoing signals were patiently waiting for. Mike still had his earpiece but KITT was way too far to even attempt to communicate with it alone, he would need to connect to an external internet or phone network to boost his signal if he wanted to at least have a chance at contacting but he would know it's too big a risk to take in these circumstances…right?

A low beeping sound came from the earpiece then and Mike froze where he was, face showing hints of fear and surprise that the others were able to catch.

Sarah walked around the table to be directly in front of the AI's driver "Mike?"

"Sarah I think…I think KITT's trying to contact through my earpiece right now"

"What? He wouldn't do that it's not safe and he knows it"

another beeping sound "I'm telling you Sarah, he's trying to connect through some external network right now I hear the beeping sound coming from the earpiece"

Zoe stood up then to say something but Mike rising his hand stopped her, there was silence for a few seconds followed by a low static and then a click.

"Mike?"

"KITT, I'm glad to hear from you but you really shouldn't be communicating through this right now, it's not safe"

"Don't worry, I made sure that this call will remain untraceable"

"what? How?"

"By using a program provided by an old friend of FLAG"

"Old friend? Who is this 'old friend' and how are you so sure you can trust them?"

"I cannot disclose their identity right now for I fear the call could be intercepted and overheard by someone monitoring the signals but hopefully you'll meet them soon"

"I guess that's a good point, not going ask where you are then based on that same logic but I'll say that I'm glad to hear from you after this morning's events"

"As am I, how are you and the others?"

"Well we were stuck in an interrogation room for most of the day but them moved us over to a secured apartment building nearby for the night so at least they're not treating us as criminals"

"Do you have any information as to why they broke into the SSC and arrested you?"

"Sort of…yeah, they want us to basically stop our work and hand you over to the other agencies so that they can have our benefits but starting tomorrow Sarah's going to try and make them see why that's such a bad idea"

"Considering past experiences, it would be a very bad idea"

"We know, we just have to make the other see that too"

"I managed to track down your location before I called, we can get in contact again tomorrow at this time and if the negotiations don't seem to be having any effects we can start to think of a way to get all of you out"

"I guess so, but I do hope they listen; I don't feel like running away for the rest of my life"

"Good night Michael"

"Good night KITT"

Now that he had some knowledge as to why this had happened and what the FBI wanted he couldn't think of any good solutions, yes he could rescue them but they would most likely have to keep running for some time in order to avoid getting caught again so even that wasn't the greatest solution…yes it would look like the only one if the negotiations really didn't work.

With a resigned sigh he sunk lower on suspension in frustration, this did not go unnoticed by the Trans am so immediately he put away the files he was reading and prodded his link to the Mustang.

"Did you talk to them?"

"I did…by what they told me it doesn't look like they have much to work with"

"They told you why the FBI was after you this morning?"

"They want FLAG to cease their operations and give the other agencies my technology in order to be more 'efficient' for lack thereof a better word"

"Sounds like another bad idea on their part"

"it does, but it doesn't look like we can do much to help them either"

"indeed…let's hope tomorrow morning Michael can get in contact with whoever he was trying to call just now, maybe a little extra help from the outside could turn the tides in out favor"

the rest of the night went on between peaceful silence and the occasional questions from kitt about the Three Thousand's abilities, to say he was interested in knowing about some of his functions would be an understatement, he was glad to hear that at least they had carried over the turbo boost to this newer version of himself.

KITT started to power back up at about sunrise, both him and the Two thousand decided to go into recharge about an hour earlier until Michael woke up and could see if he could get some help. Seeing the yellow and orange sky through one of the open windows he started his engine in silent mode and hacked the garage door that (thankfully) was actually quiet to open and close. Driving around the back of the cabin he stopped at the edge of a slope that descended to the edge of a lake that had a pier on one side; he turned off his engine and found some relative ease on the cool morning breeze and the feel of the moist grass under his tires, he was brought out of his peace by an incoming call from an unidentified caller that due to the situation his best option would be to answer.

"Hello?"

"Ah, glad you decided to answer. Good morning Knight Three Thousand, I call in behalf of the FBI and other specialized government agencies to make a deal with you regarding the future of your friends here, are you interested?"

a deal? "What kind of deal?"

"a simple trade, you in exchange for your co-workers and driver's freedom; no strings attached, no records, just as if nothing had ever happened"

"If you want me then why not send your people directly after me, you managed to contact me so I suppose you know my location"

"Because of two reasons: one being that, as you showed us when escaping the SSC, our agents are no match for your abilities in disguise and hiding; second reason being that we actually don't know where you are, we were able to get the signal we are currently using to communicate from your call last night with your driver but we did not manage to pinpoint your location"

"And what if I refuse to turn myself in?"

"well, if that's the case then I'm afraid that they'll have to be charged with multiple cases of manipulation of the law, smuggling, countless traffic violations, one case of trespassing on government property AND stealing from said property amongst many others; I'm sure you realize those add up to a lot of time behind bars"

There was silence from the AI's side, he was running all possible scenarios through his processor, what could he do to save his friends other than following this man's instructions? Before he could say anything else the man spoke again "you have until midnight tonight to make a choice, go to the address this call is coming from if you do decide to cooperate and we'll see to your team walking off safely"

KITT sat under the cover of the trees, it had been an hour since his talk with the FBI representative about the 'deal' he had for him, from what he said Sarah's attempt at making them see how wrong they were would be useless since the decision had basically been already made unless he turned himself in. immersed in his own thoughts he missed kitt getting out of the garage and parking next to him.

"You're up early"

"I have to leave"

now kitt was surprised "What? Why?"

"I received a call earlier, I've been really thinking this through and I believe this is the only way to save Mike, Sarah, Billy and Zoe"

"what are you planning to do?"

"I'm turning myself in to the FBI to free Mike and the others"

"Turn yourself in? you'll be driving to your doom"

"I have no choice, if I don't go then they'll send them to prison and it'll be almost impossible to free them by legal means considering all the charges against them"

"give them more time, at least let Michael call his contact, maybe they'll provide another solution"

"there is no time, I have until midnight to make a several hour drive to get there" he turned his engine on then and started to back up, kitt turning around to face him as he did so

"I am not letting you drive straight into your doom, what would Mike say if he knew what you were doing?"

"I know he would not approve…but my primary directive besides the preservation of human life is the wellbeing of my driver, the only way to achieve that one is to turn myself in. I know what I'm getting into by going but I also trust my friends; I know that they'll find a way to get back to me eventually"

"and what if they can't?" he drove closer to KITT "What. If. They. Can't?"

"Well…then at least they won't be in jail"

"I'm not letting you go KITT"

"I'm sorry, but you're not stopping me" without any further warning KITT backed away with a J-turn and took off the way he had come, the Trans am following close behind.

Upon reaching the highway KITT started to pick up speed, the trans am was starting to slowly fall behind but he was decided to keep him from driving to his doom; taking a split second decision he activated his super pursuit mode and caught up with the Mustang, sticking to his side. "KITT, stop this now, we'll figure out another way"

KITT did not bother arguing the point again and instead he switched to his attack mode, at first kitt managed to stay right by his side even as he increased his speed but a well angled turbo boost gave KITT the necessary sudden increase of speed he needed to start gaining on him, as much as kitt hated to admit it his increase in aerodynamics and boost was not enough to keep up with the near full engine swap KITT went through when in his attack mode.

Seeing that he would not be able to catch up he retracted the extensions that made up his super pursuit mode and started to slow down before turning back and heading for home, they had to follow KITT, if they did end up releasing Mike and the others then they needed to talk to them and start to think of a way to recover KITT.

The suited man sat on his desk tending to some paperwork, he was pretty sure that his talk with the Three Thousand earlier had been enough to convince the AI to come, he knew little about the thing but he did know that the protection of his driver was one of his primary directives; in theory the threat of sending Knight to prison for years should be enough to coax him into basically the only way to save him.

His musings were interrupted by the phone ringing, no caller ID could be displayed and he could only guess who was calling

"I was wondering when you were going to call"

"I'll meet you outside the back end of the building in five hours, have your agents at the SSC bring my colleagues' cars and clear the base since the property still belongs to Sarah legally and therefor your men are trespassing; once I see them drive away safely I'll hand myself in willingly"

"You do know you are in no position to make demands right?"

"You want me? Then those are my terms of surrender"

there was a pause "…I'll see that your terms are met then, after that I expect you obey my men"

"Only after my terms have been fulfilled, then I'll follow your men wherever they decide to station me"

"and how do I know you're not lying?"

"I am an AI, I cannot lie; humans on the other side are prone to deceit, I expect you to keep your end of the deal, I'm sure you know I have ways of knowing"

"I am a man of my word Three Thousand, your co-workers will drive away safely and not one of my men will be at their base by the time they arrive. Looking forwards to our meeting"

they had taken the four of them back into the same room as yesterday about an hour ago, Sarah had tried to discuss the negative points of getting KITT copied and replicated but none of the three people she had talked to seemed to listen, she was frustrated out of her mind and she was already starting to assimilate the idea of figuring an actual escape plan but deep down she really hoped that someone would listen to her by the end of the day.

Mike was pacing around the room while Sarah stood on a corner, Billy and Zoe were sitting on a couch in one side of the room half asleep-half working out some sort of escape plan. With no warning a group of men entered the room and instructed them to follow, they exchanged confused looks before obeying.

It was just about four in the evening, the suited man stood with a group of five armed men on the back entrance to the building alongside a couple FBI vans, the Knight Three Thousand would be arriving soon and the FLAG employees were probably on their way, his men had brought over two of their cars as the AI had asked; a white Volvo and a red Focus. His men had already left the SSC so all he had to do now was wait and watch everything fall into place.

A door opened behind him then and a small group of guards came out with the FLAG team, they looked around at the area and their confusion was clearly evident upon seeing their own cars. Mike was the first one to question it

"What is going on?"

the suited man took a step towards him to answer "You are free to go back to the SSC, my men have been called back and your record is clean"

Mike half laughed in confusion "What just like that?"

"I made a deal, this was my end of the deal and I have fulfilled it"

"A deal?" before Mike could ask anything else his attention turned to the sound of a very powerful engine approaching, his face paled considerably when from around the corner a jet black Mustang with a scarlet red scanner slowly came to a stop across from where everyone was standing "KITT...?"

 **There is a scene for this chapter as well already up on my DeviantArt page for those who might be interested, just look me up as lllBluebirdlll and you shouldn't have any trouble finding me. thanks to those that take their time to read over the story, you guys are the best**


	5. Chapter 5

Upon hearing Mike say his name he was able to detect the surprised and disbelieving tone in his voice, his scanner was tracking slowly as he turned off his engine and looked at the suited man who he guessed was who he had spoken to this morning.

A hit of fear settled in the pit of Mike's stomach as he exchanged worried looks with the others before looking back to the Mustang "KITT what are you doing?"

Not even giving the AI a chance to answer the suited man spoke up "He's turning himself over to me in exchange for your freedom"

"what?" Mike tried walking over to the AI but he was stopped by some of the guards "KITT don't do this, I told you to run for a reason damnit why did you come back?!"

from behind Sarah noticed the Shelby's front end slightly sink lower as Mike spoke, KITT clearly knew that he had gone against Mike's orders.

as his scanner's intensity grew lower he spoke in a low voice "I'm sorry Michael, this was the only way…"

upon hearing the AI's low response his anger faded, looking closely he noticed the car's posture and…was that a hint of sadness in his voice?

"Well, as you can see we brought some of your cars over from the SSC, you are free to go back now since-"

as the man in the suit kept talking Mike had the AI speaking through his earpiece as he explained why he had taken the man's deal, the AI's driver now understood that no matter how hard Sarah tried to explain their situation the outcome would've been the same if KITT hadn't accepted the guy's deal

"-so if you excuse me I have much to do, I have to wait for the four of you to leave however so I'd recommend you do so now before I change my mind about all this"

Sarah exchanged looks with Mike since she knew KITT had probably told him something privately; he nodded at her before starting to walk towards his Volvo, Sarah following him. Billy and Zoe saw this and rather confused they got in Zoe's Focus, both cars leaving the area a minute later with one last look at the AI.

As soon as the two cars were out of sight the suited man walked over to KITT who by now had resumed his normal posture.

"Well, my end of the deal is complete, I expect you to fulfill yours; these two vans will escort you to a place about an hour away from here and expect that the next call I receive until then is the confirmation that you have arrived otherwise our deal is off and we'll get your friends back behind bars"

there was no response from the AI but as soon as one of the vans moved towards the exit he followed, the second one stopping behind him; pleased with this the suited man gave them the order and the convoy left.

Kitt had arrived at the town an hour after the Mustang, he had explained the events of that morning to his driver and both were now heading to where kitt had detected him being stationary for a little while, before he got there however he detected two cars that looked like were driving away from where he was heading, using street cameras he was able to identify the cars and the drivers.

"well…we have a problem"

"you found something kitt?"

"more like someone, Mike and the other FLAG workers are several streets ahead"

"why is that a problem?"

"if they're driving then that means that KITT already completed the deal and he's now in the hands of the FBI and the other agencies, if we're going to attempt to save him we need to move fast"

"in that case set a course to intercept Mike…we have to stop them from leaving and work on a plan together"

"and you think he'll be just fine with you showing up now after...well, you know..."

"does it matter? I wish we could meet under different circumstances but for now he'll need to understand that if he wants KITT back we'll need to work together"

Several streets ahead the group stopped at a gas station, more for camouflage and to make it look like they were just fueling up before leaving the town to scouting eyes they stopped to figure out their what their next course of action would be, standing by their cars the four discussed what had happened and Mike told them what KITT had said to him directly through his earpiece.

"So what now Sarah?"

"Why are you asking me? I'm as troubled as you are Mike…we could go back to the SSC and start from there"

Zoe then interrupted "I don't believe leaving KITT here while we go all the way back to base is the best way to go about this"

"well we do need to find somewhere to set base for now and get some tech but I doubt that'll be easy to do here" Sarah looked back at Mike then "We could try and get some help"

"help? From who?"

as if in response to that very question the four turned to the sound of an approaching car, the dark, sleek design and the ruby scanner on its prow making them stare in utter disbelief before turning their attention to the man climbing out.

"I believe we could help, if you allow us to"

KITT followed the vans until they arrived at their destination, a makeshift lab on a medium size warehouse at the edge of the city, multiple techs walked about minding their own business on a computer or a mechanical contraption of sorts only stopping when he drove by to stare in awe since they probably knew who he was.

The van he was following veered to a side then, revealing a platform on the floor that looked like the gimbal he had back at the SSC but without the arches, a computer on the side was hooked up to it and a couple more techs were doing something under said platform, he stopped at the edge of the thing as the pace his scanner tracked at sped up in uncertainty; the van behind him inched closer as if urging him to drive forwards, KITT wouldn't budge, not even after the larger vehicle had its front bumper pressed against his rear end. The AI had not lied when he sad that he would go wherever the suited man's people were going to station him, but that didn't mean that once there he would make their job an easy task…

Annoyed at the Mustang's unwillingness to move the van's driver decided to try and push the car, a task that he soon found out would not be possible after a loud pop indicated that his vehicle's front bumper had popped off its sides due to the amount of pressure he was applying; meanwhile the Mustang remained in it's place with not even a speck of dirt on its near iridescent surface.

The techs around them proceeded to try and push the Mustang by hand, of course that was a massive failure. Their last idea was to try and pull him over the platform using another car, the issue with that was that the one unlucky guy that had pulled the shortest piece of paper had to go and practically lay on the ground in front of the AI to get it hooked to the chain that was attached to a pickup truck parked on the opposite side of the platform from KITT

The scared tech approached the Mustang cautiously and kneeled down in front of it, trying to reach under its front spoiler, he reached down only to quickly retract his hand with a yelp from receiving an electric shock; it wasn't strong enough to be harmful but it was certainly quite uncomfortable.

The laughs from his colleagues at his reaction was enough to get him trying several more times with similar outcomes until finally he laid down and poked half of his head under the car, enduring yet another shock as he reached up with his hand and managed to get the hook in its place. With a triumphant grin he walked back with the other techs as another one climbed on the pickup and started to pull, the truck's wheels spun on the sleek floor while the Mustang remained planted on its place.

White smoke started to pout from the struggling truck and KITT noticed that even with his handbrake on he was starting to get pulled forwards ever so slightly, turning on his engine once more he began to pull back to his original spot with not even the slightest hint of wheel spin; KITT stopped reversing when his back bumper was pressed against the van behind him once again.

Seemingly frustrated at their lack of progress one of the techs that was standing by decided to get on the van behind the Mustang and push from behind, it worked for a few seconds and KITT started to slide forwards until his front wheels were touching the edge of the platform before he managed to stop himself.

From the side came another man waving his arms in the air to get the techs attention over the sound of fighting engines, once the truck's driver saw him he stopped accelerating and all three currently active engines stopped soon after.

"What are you idiots doing? You're not going to get it on like that it can easily overpower any of the cars we have here" the techs simply stood on their place with a nervous expression, the man pointed at two of them "You two, follow me"

KITT watched as the new man that arrived took off with two of the techs that had been around, after they disappeared from view he turned his attention to the computers on the desks and stations nearby; he couldn't access any of his long or short range scanners ever since he entered the property and his connection to the internet was weak; he guessed that these people had some advanced dampening field to be able to block even his advanced systems to this extent.

With nothing else to do at the moment other than stalling the techs' progress he focused on the computer that was connected directly to the platform, getting his full attention on the thing he missed that one of the techs that had left a few minutes ago was now in the space below the platform; the guy was holding something that looked similar to a taser and looked nervous as he approached the car's front underside crouching, the instructions from the head tech circling around his head.

-Flashback (five minutes earlier)-

"The information we just received on the car shows that some of its mechanical components and parts are located in different areas than that of a regular car because of all the extra equipment it carries, there is a long, thin opening close to where the front spoiler ends in the center of the car, I need you to use this in that opening" he handed the nervous tech a gun that was similar in appearance to a taser

"What does this thing do?"

"it'll send a powerful electric current that hopefully will make our jobs easier"

"and why do I have to hit that particular spot?"

"that opening is a specialized air intake that to our luck is near a set of cables that run up through the engine compartment and into the particular component that allows the car to control its movement; from simply opening a door to the engine's ignition. If we manage to fry said component, then the car won't be able to move at all and we just have to deal with the fight it's sure to put up when we try and

access his systems"

-end flashback-

He slowly stood up from his crouched position when he reached the edge of the underside bay, the opening the head tech told him about was barely over the platform but he could access it through the open space between the tracks for the wheels. Reaching up he activated the device and it started to produce a low humming sound as it charged for a couple seconds until the blinking red light on the side turned green; with a hint of fear he reached for the opening with the device. as soon as the edge made contact with the car's metal underside electricity cackled as it ran through the metal car with a sudden jolt.

KITT was just about to break through the computer's second firewall when a sudden burst of white hot electricity ran through his underside, the sudden burst made him physically jump back in pain as warnings popped around his field of view, his scanner and lights flickered on and off several times before settling. A second after the jump the AI received a system failure warning as he felt something within his engine compartment burst with enough force to send sparks out of his wheel wells shortly before some smoke started to rise from the vents on his hood.

His scanner tracked back and forth at a fast pace in both shock and anxiety as he performed a quick self-diagnostic, the electric current had been clearly targeting his automated driving and motion components and it had succeeded in blowing it up which had solo damages other parts of his engine…not that it mattered anyway since now he couldn't move on his own at all, leaving him completely defenseless to the techs around him; speaking of techs…

The Mustang turned his attention the space under the platform where one of the techs that had left earlier was on the ground rubbing his head, the device used to target his systems resting some distance away from him. Now KITT was confused, to target that specific system they would've needed to know his internal blueprints, otherwise there would be no way for them to know they needed to send the current through his underside vent.

His very core froze in realization just then, some way, somehow the people they had sent over to the SSC had gained access to at least some of his files, he couldn't know exactly what files they had but if they retrieved at least his internal blueprints (which judging by what just happened they did) then his time had been cut short a whole lot.

Mike sat with Sarah in his Volvo following a black Trans am through town, Billy and Zoe were on their way back to the SSC to inspect the damage and help from there with whatever they could, the silence inside the Volvo was as uncomfortable as it could get; to say that Mike had been surprised when he saw his father showing up NOW of all times would be the understatement of the century. He had to force himself to stay calm, he was there offering help to get KITT back and at the time that was his priority, his issues with him would have to wait until after this whole ordeal was over.

As Mike drove Sarah though back to what his father had said, apparently the 'old friends' KITT had mentioned on his talk with Mike the previous night had been Mr. Knight and the Knight Two Thousand; how did they manage to find KITT in the first place and how were they tracking him now was still a mystery, another mystery all on its own was the supposedly dismantled AI who had gone through 25 plus years of experience in this field which, are really not easy come by, and yet there he was driving right in front of her with Mike's father working on a mission just as if they were back on the 80s.

She glanced at Mike every now and then to see his face serious and expressionless, his father showing up now after the last time they saw each other was back when his mom had died last year was probably not helping his already stressed out mood from having KITT taken by the FBI for the most likely case scenario of reverse engineering. This was going to be a long day…

Kitt headed to the last location where he had detected the other AI's signal for the last time, wherever he was now it surely was protected well enough to block his unique signature that well, lucky for him and the others there was a relatively lonely apartment building nearby that they could probably use as their temporary HQ until at least they could figure out a proper plan.

Kitt drove into the apartment building's underground garage and stopped by one of the entrances.

"kitt go have a recon drive around the area, I'll stay here with Mike and Sarah and look for a place to stay where we can keep a look over that place" climbing out of the Trans am he closed the door and the AI took off, Mike parked his car some spaces away from the entrance and both him and Sarah went over to him; her being the first to speak.

"So, what now?"

"I send kitt to have a look around the area, he thinks your KITT is in that warehouse two blocks from here"

"How does he know where he is? How was he able to track him yesterday after he ran away from the SSC?"

"Well I'm really not the one to explain but from what kitt told me it would look like your father had the two AIs connected via a core link, this connection is stronger than just a regular communications link and is untraceable unless you have the exact same code and frequency…which kitt obviously had"

"well neither KITT or my father told me about this link"

"well up until last night he didn't know about it either, as for your father I don't know what reason he could've had for keeping it from you or KITT"

Mike was the next one to speak after that conversation was over "How did you even know about what had happened at the SSC?"

"Well I don't really know the specifics of it, kitt woke me up early in the morning and explained what little he knew about what had happened based on a file and some video footage he acquired…I don't know much more than that"

there was some silence between the three before Sarah headed up and into the building to look for a place to settle, leaving the two men down in the garage.

Mike stood with his arms crossed leaning against the wall, his head was tilted upwards and his eyes were closed. Michael took a few steps closer to say something but his son beat him to it without even opening an eye.

"Why didn't you show up again? After the funeral you said that you hoped we would see each other again...but you never came"

"I'm sorry Mike…I really wanted to but at the same time I didn't know how, after leaving you for so long"

with a sigh Mike opened his eyes and turned to look at his father "You could've just come, it would've been better than waiting for something like THIS mess to happen don't you think?"

"yeah…you're right. If you really want to know why I waited I'll tell you; I didn't dare show up at the SSC when so many people could and would've eventually know that contrary to what the files said kitt had not been dismantled. I did it to protect him, I knew you had your KITT and even friends working with you just as much as that AI so I saw no need to show up. deep down I wanted you to figure out your own path down this road

"I know it was probably a stupid decision but know that even though I didn't contact you I never lost touch with you, kitt helped me out on that part and you have no idea how proud it made me knowing that not only did you manage to to fulfill the role Wilton Knight entrusted me back in the day, but that you had outgrown it and made it something so much more after you and your friends kept going when Knight Industries was shutdown.

"I know I can't make it up to you for all that time in between now and our last talk at your mother's funeral, but at least accept my apology and kitt and my help to try and make things right"

there were a few seconds of silence between them and for a moment Michael thought that his talk had not been enough, he took a deep sigh and was about to turn around before Mike stopped him in a hug that he corresponded. In a half laugh Mike spoke then "Would it have been that hard to say this before now?"

with a similar laugh Michael pushed his son away in good fun before saying something else but it was interrupted by the sound of an engine entering the garage.

Kitt had been standing just outside the entrance when he detected that his driver was alone with Mike, by their movements he could tell that they were speaking, more than likely Michael was explaining why he hadn't show up after over two years, question that even kitt did not know the answer to; rather than drive in and interrupt he patiently waited to see the resolve and was happy to see that it had ended in a good way. Deciding that time was of the essence he drove in just as Sarah came back from inside the building.

KITT had tried to somehow repair his automated driving and motion components using his Nanotech but it was very well near impossible to bring back something that had been literally blown to pieces. With some annoyance he was pulled by the truck onto the platform just as the same man he had made this deal with showed up, looking rather annoyed. He walked past the techs and headed straight for him.

"I arrived here expecting to receive some progress but instead some guard tells me it took these incompetent fools over half an hour just to get you on the platform" he tapped his foot impatiently as he looked directly at the AI's scanner "I thought we had a deal you said-"

"I said that after I saw my friends leave safely I would follow your men willingly to wherever you were going to station me, I fulfilled my end of the deal; I never stated that I would let your technicians access me or my systems"

the man remained silent as he realized the flaw on his plan, regardless at least he had the car, now it was up to his techs to crack it open. With that though in mind he simply tuned around to leave as he signaled the various people around to get to work,

as soon as he had been unhooked from the truck the surrounding techs headed to the computers over to the side, instantly KITT felt the various simultaneous attempts at breaking down his first firewall; with not even a second to waste the AI set up his defensive programs to work on the hackers while focused on fixing whatever bits had been taken down or broken, completely focused on his internal war KITT was pulled out of his work by a proximity alarm.

Stopping his work on the firewall he saw the one tech that had been standing on the computer connected to the platform walking over with several cables in hand, he tried pulling on the door but the AI had locked fully upon arriving, now he had another problem; he needed to fight off the hackers while at the same time use whatever resources he had to prevent the rest of the techs from opening his door, if they managed to get access to his cabin he might as well consider himself officially off-lined.

Keeping his attention split between two problems he couldn't be fully efficient on either of them, he stopped outdoing the techs and was now barely managing to keep them from making any real progress but even then he knew that eventually he would be outmatched and their progress would be faster. With his scanner working overtime tracking back and forth at a fast pace and his systems fully divided in different tasks the AI couldn't help but hope that at least his friends were making more progress than him…

Sarah paced back and forth in the near dark room as she held her phone to her ear listening to a very panicked Billy, night had fallen about an hour ago and the two techs had just arrived back at base to see that the whole placed looked like it had been turned upside down; worse than that though was the fact that upon verifying the complex's files they detected that a copy of one of them had been made.

"Okay Billy slow down, give me Zoe and make sure that's the only thing that's out of place with the files"

some shuffling came across the line before Zoe finally took the phone from the nervous geek "Sarah, we have a problem"

"yean I know, one of our files has been copied"

"it's way worse than that, the file that was copied was not just any file. Somehow those guys managed to either break or bypass the encryption on some of KITT's files…they took his mechanical and software blueprints"

Mike looked back to Sarah from talking to his father to the sound of her phone hitting the ground, alarmed he got up from where he was sitting and headed to where she was "what happened, did they take anything bad?"

"bad would be an understatement…Mike, they took KITT's blueprints"

The Trans am sat on the parking lot doing some research of his own and trying to break through to the cameras inside the place where they were keeping KITT; he had been listening to his driver and the other two talk for a while, nothing really called his attention enough to distract him from his work up until he heard Sarah say that the Shelby's blueprints had been copied and taken.

Those people had somehow managed to break through an encryption not even he had been able to…wait…they had KITT"s blueprints, with those he was pretty much an open book for them; in a sense it was as if they had their very own cheat sheet to access his mechanical components via adjacent ports or safe locks. With a bad feeling creeping up the back of his processor he set aside his research and focused completely on the cameras.

It took him a little more than he would like to admit but eventually he broke through the encryption and managed to keep his signal undetected by the place's security, cycling through the various cameras around the building he finally found one that gave him a view of the other AI 'Oh dear…'

For over three hours he had been forced to keep his efforts against the hackers on full speed, he had already received the first warning about his systems beginning to overheat and because he couldn't reach for the car's ignition he couldn't get the AC going for extra aid in cooling.

As he kept fighting off the hackers from breaking through his second firewall he barely managed to notice that one of the computers had accessed his systems through a backdoor and had nearly managed to reach for the door's locking mechanism before KITT intercepted it and kicked it back out of his system; slowly others went through that same entrance and KITT had to completely leave the firewall's defense up to his own internal security in order to block the constant flow of computers accessing his system through that backdoor.

It frustrated him to no end that he was not able to close that entrance but at the moment he was more worried with how did these people even manage to find it, even if it had been by accident how did they manage to OPEN it? That backdoor was password protected by his own high end encryption…

His troubled thoughts and rushing to lock individual computers out one by one ended up getting his full attention until he received another warning, his second firewall had been breached and the third and last one was already being attacked. He couldn't divide his attention fully to act efficiently enough despite his couple hours of stalling for time, at this point he decided to leave his ultimately useless efforts to fight the intruders.

KITT was normally not the one to be afraid, his first experience with said emotion had been some time ago when both him and Mike had to fight KARR even when most of his systems were not working, he felt fear then and after that he doubted that he would encounter that emotion again; oh but how wrong he had been, here he was, working in a last second act of self-preservation and dumping his main programs and primary systems and coding in his physical core, setting up another set of layers around it for protection before dumping his own essence of being as well. Now he was once again facing that same emotion, fear wrapping around his processor for his and his friends' uncertain future as he shut down his main computer.

The head tech supervised the progress on breaking into the AI as he walked behind the desks where several of his best had been working constantly, chipping away slowly at the defenses, secretly he admired the AI for how complex it was and seeing how well it fought back and for as long as it had only enforced that admiration; regardless of that this was his job and he needed to succeed.

One of the techs interrupted his musings when he called out saying that the AI was no longer putting up a fight, normally he would encourage him and the others to take advantage of this and finish breaking the encryption to finally get full access to the computer's programming but the IT geek inside of him made him go over to the tech's computer to see for himself.

Sure enough they were breaking through the firewall way faster than before and those that had entered using the backdoor were no longer being kicked out. He walked around the long desk where all the computers were and headed for the car, the red scanner on its grille was tracking back and forth at quite the speed. As he was walking over the scanner suddenly went dark and almost in unison the techs working behind him said that the computer had shut down completely.

Looking back from the techs to the car he continued to head for the driver's side door 'Truly an impressive piece technology, the relentless fight for survival ending in one last attempt to avoid deactivation by locking yourself in...' he reached for the door handle and surprisingly the door opened smoothly, some of the techs closer to him stared in amazement as he dropped down inside the Mustang.

He was surprised to see that behind the tinted windows that hid the interior from the outside world there really was not much that gave away the AI that took residence inside the machine, only a dark globe-like thing of unknown purpose on the dash gave some hint that this was not even close to a regular car.

 **I couldn't find the time to recreate a scene for this chapter either so sorry about that but I'm already working on the one that's going to be posted with next chapter so look forwards to that. thanks for sticking through this so far**


	6. Chapter 6

"Michael"

Mike and Sarah stopped their discussion upon hearing kitt through the comlink, Michael instantly knew something bad had happened based off of the AI's tone "Yeah kitt?"

"I'm afraid our time is running out, and quite fast"

"what did you find?"

"Look into the laptop Sarah brought, I'll be linking the video feed I managed to get to you"

hearing this Sarah brought the laptop from where she had set it up on a table, on the screen the programs and files she had opened were covered by a new window displaying the video feed kitt had acquired. It showed what looked like a mix between a hi-tech lab and a garage, towards the back and too far from the camera's view to make out any important detail the three could clearly see KITT, his scanner was dark and the driver's side door was open; a man was climbing out just then and motion for some of the techs to come, soon enough another tech opened the passenger's side door and with close to no effort they opened the hood.

Mike walked away from the screen just then and walked out of the room, quickly descending the flights of stairs that leaded to the garage. He started to head for his car until another engine stopped him mid step, he turned around and saw the Trans am parked just behind him, the ruby red scanner tracking calmly.

"And just where do you think you're going?"

"I'm going after KITT, not going to stand here and do nothing while those idiots take him apart"

"and how do you plan on saving him? If you plan on blasting through the main doors in your car I'll just say that unlike KITT those windows and panels are not bulletproof and will not provide much help of cover from those guards' guns"

"Well what other choice do I have? Sarah won't want to move without a plan, Billy and Zoe can't do much from base and all of this while he's being taken apart and reverse engineered in that lab. Don't tell me you're not even a little anxious just sitting here while all of this is happening just a few blocks from here"

"Oh I am, but I know that harsh impulse actions will not help our current situation"

Standing straight Mike crossed his arms as he glared at the Pontiac"So what you have a plan or something?"

"Something like that, but it will require that you are patient and that you listen closely…"

The hours flew by as techs came and went carrying different parts and tools, with the computer deactivated there was nothing to hinder their progress and slowly but surely the various teams of techs had managed to strip away some of the car's panel, underneath each of the ones they removed were rivers of thin cables and interconnected microchips that seems to run all through the car in what could only be described as the synthetic representation of a nervous system. the lead tech walked around the Mustang as his team kept working, he admired the complexity of this AI and not only in the software department now that he was seeing all that really was under the body panels.

While a group worked on the body of the car itself another group focused on the engine, their first surprise was that as simple as the scanner looked like from the outside it was entirely different under the hood; the scanner had a long metal casing that seemed to enclose all sorts of electronic components design for fast processing and analysis among other things. The engine bay in itself besides housing the heavily modified engine had other components and casings that served another unknown purpose for the AI.

The head tech looked around the engine bay as his techs came and went with parts of the engine and other electronic components, he didn't care at the moment what those particular thing did, he was searching for one specific piece of equipment that he'd only seen before in pictures a while ago but all things considered it should look at least similar to what he had seen.

After a couple techs struggled to remove a relatively large component the head tech managed to spot near the back of the engine bay a rectangular black box about 30 by 20 centimeters in size. Reaching down carefully he disconnected the multiple cables from their ports and got the thing out; the Knight Research logo was engraved into the black metal casing in an electric blue paint, that was all the confirmation the man needed to know that he had found the right piece.

Leaving the rest of the techs to keep working on the car the older man took the black box to one of the larger computers and plugged it in. As the program started to run the man was surprised to see the progress bar taking quite some time to start moving, he could only guess that before locking itself in its core the AI had set up some pretty heavy encryption to make anyone trying to access it take quite some time.

Regardless of that the wonder of that program was that the as it broke down the encryption it could start to access some of the data, in this case probably some of the AI's core memories, after that it would most likely be some of the encryption code itself and THEN after all of the layers were broken in the span of a few hours he would reach the computer's base code; what truly made up the AI from its roots…that was what he was after, once he had that data he could use it to create another AI that had the same base code as this one which in consequence would get rid of all possible issues regarding dangerous loopholes in the code like what had happened with the first iteration of KARR.

Mike sat inside kitt's passenger's side as they left the garage, His father and Sarah had left on his car to another location a few hours from there, Zoe and Billy had downloaded and stored the important data in several drives from the SSC and had taken several laptops and one relatively powerful computer to link all the data in a new makeshift mainframe to set up on what would become their temporary base until this mess was over.

The ex-army ranger had argued against the experienced AI's plan at first but there was some truth to what he had said; at first he had jumped at the idea of waiting for the techs to take out KITT's core computer before going after him but eventually he made him see that if they went after him before that it would be nearly impossible to drive him out and escape. Kitt made him see that despite how the Mustang may look when they arrive that the car's body and the AI were separate entities and if they managed to arrive on time then they would recover KITT just fine.

He had agreed to the AI's plan but he didn't expect to have to wait so long, despite the amount of people that were working on the Mustang as he watched the video feed he had not been able to identify if they had found KITT's core yet, he had been placed in charge of looking over the feed and inform kitt when they did take out the Mustang's core.

He had never seen the AI's core; he knew that a big extension of it was under the panel where KITT's voice modulator was but he had never see what his core looked like, Sarah told him to look for a black box about the size of a small laptop coming out of the engine compartment so…shouldn't be too hard right?

Well no, not in theory, but neither of them were expecting for their video feed to be shut down. The message 'Source blocked' appeared on screen and Mike ran down to the garage, alarmed at the loss of connection, the Trans am simply told him that he would have another secure camera view in a little while. Returning to the room Mike laid down on a couch with the laptop on top of him as he waited for the new feed; a thousand thoughts running through his head all wondering about his partner's current state.

It pained him to have to simply sit and watch as the FBI techs had their way around the Mustang, taking out this thing or that, connecting cables into several ports on the inside of the car that he couldn't see with nothing to stop them. He had shut himself down to prevent the techs from accessing his systems but before that Mike was sure that he had put up quite the fight if they were just now managing to access him.

He guessed that the technicians there were probably quite good if they had forced KITT into shutdown. After a little while the laptop brought up another window with the new feed from a different camera, the angle was different and it was harder to distinguish what was happening around the Mustang but because of the situation he really couldn't get picky.

Another hour flew by and Mike found himself glancing at the clock on the bottom corner more and more often, kitt had said he was trying to get in contact with someone that apparently could help so he had some hopes for that. As much as he hated to admit it he was really starting to feel the toll of not sleeping at all for over 24 hours, his eyelids were heavy and he had to move to a sitting position to avoid falling asleep.

On several occasions he had accidentally dozed off for a few minutes and upon realizing it each time he had to make sure that a few of the techs he had identified were still on screen; his way of guessing that they hadn't taken out the core yet. He took another look at the clock and sighed '3:25 am'

At one point he fell into a half-aware sleep, he was conscious of the passing of time but his eyes were closed, calculating about five minutes he opened his eyes again and noticed that two of the techs he had identified were gone and some more panels of the car's body had been removed 'wait what?' sitting up straight he took another look at the clock '4:45 am'..." Oh shit"

Kitt was pulled from his research when Mike all but stumbled out of the stairway and into the parking lot mumbling something incoherent as he struggled to not let the laptop he was carrying fall to the ground; alarmed the AI immediately opened his passenger's side door and the man fell in.

"Mike what is-"

"They've taken out KITT's core, I don't know how long ago I kind of dozed off for five minutes that ended up turning into over an hour"

Realizing the severity of the situation kitt instantly took off, worst case scenario those techs had been decrypting KITT's core for the past hour and who knows what kind of progress they could've been able to make. Mike threw the laptop on the backseat as he sat inside the car expectantly reviewing the plan in his head: kitt would break through the back doors and drive up to where KITT's shell was, he would quickly get out of the car and grab the core from whatever computer it was plugged in on, hop back in the car and both would take off before anyone knew what had happened.

The head tech walked around the Mustang as the others came and went carrying different tools and parts, he looked inside at the assortment of cables that had been plugged in where the globe-like device had been on the dash as well as under the steering wheel.

He was glad to see progress in the mechanical area of the car but he couldn't say the same for the software, progress was slow due to the various layers of encryption that had been placed on each individual component. He took another glance at the computer where he had plugged in the AI's core and sighed 'over an hour and barely over three percent…damn'

With a defeated sigh he got out of the car and sat on one of the desks to wait. He leaned his head back and closed his eyes, deciding that for now the only thing he could do was wait; the silence of humming computers was suddenly shattered by the sound of metal crashing against metal, startled the man shot up fully awake to see a black 80s Trans am race through the lab and skid to a halt behind the Mustang "Impossible…" the techs working around it scattered and ducked for cover as the guards began to open fire on the intruders.

Mike rushed out of the car when he gave him the signal, he stopped for a second when he saw KITT's half dismantled body as his pieces and panels remained scattered around the floor. The sound of bullets bouncing off of the Trans am's MBS was enough to bring him to his senses and he rushed over to the assortment of computers across from where he was standing.

Quickly he scanned through the desks and saw various components plugged in and running but none of them looked like what Sarah had described. Techs scattered all over the place to the sound of gunshots and Mike had to duck for cover behind one of the desks, as he laid on the floor and saw a tech that looked older in appearance compared to the others, he looked around nervously before running from his spot towards a bigger computer where Mike was barely able to identify a certain black box plugged in. "Oh no you don't"

deciding to take the risk Mike ran towards the computer and pushed the tech off right has he had managed to get a hold of the box.

"Wait, No don't!" ignoring the man's plea Mike pulled the cables from the box and pressed the thing close against his chest as he ran back towards kitt.

As Mike literally threw himself inside him he closed the door and took off the way he had come, the day was still dark enough so that he could conceal himself relatively well in the dark so he turned off all his exterior lights and switched over to his super pursuit mode as soon as he hit the highway.

Mike managed to straighten himself up after kitt had left the building and was simply driving in a straight line, he sat up on the tan seat and put on his seatbelt, he looked over to the driver's seat where he had dropped KITT's core and grabbed it. The box was fairly heavy and definitely thicker than a regular laptop despite having similar dimensions.

He sat in silence without taking his eyes off of the device in his lap as the drone of the turbines

faded into nothing more than background noise. He had seen his partner damaged on several occasions, the KARR incident being the more recent and most prominent one to date but…seeing him half dismantled had definitely topped that last one. he could hardly believe that what made the AI 'KITT' was this piece of technology on his hands, his life, memories and personality all resting on his hands.

After a while of silent, uneventful driving Mike finally decided to ask the one question plaguing his mind, without even taking his eyes off the black box "What's it like?"

The AI turned part of his attention away from driving and to his passenger "Pardon me?"

"What's it like? Deactivation, being in this state"

"Despite what you might think Mike he's not deactivated; he went into a self-induced temporary shutdown for protection. He's not 'dead' to put it on more human terms, he's in a state of limbo, the very basic essence of being. Think of it as if you were simply standing in a dark room, you can't tell the passing of time and have no idea what's happening on the outside but you're just 'there'"

"And how will we know if we managed to save him on time?"

"for that we'll have to wait until we can get his core plugged in to the computer Setup your friends are getting ready at our meetup point"

"And what would happen if we didn't make it on time?"

"Well…I don't know how much progress they got in decrypting KITT's core so I really can't tell. From what I know it could go anywhere from some degree of memory loss to missing algorithms that could alter the personality he's been developing since he was first activated"

"and if that were the case is there any chance of fixing it?"

"well I can't be sure, I don't know much about how his systems work so I can't come up with any possibilities of it working or not working"

As the two kept driving at impossible speeds the dark sky began to light up with the early morning pinks and oranges up until the sun finally rose over the horizon, Mike woke up from the short sleep he had fallen into and inspected the box under proper lighting; the metal casing was smooth and it had multiple entry ports on one of the longer sides, the Knight Research logo was engraved on the top with an electric blue color in the middle and the number 3000 rested on the right bottom corner, this one engraved with a bright red.

The rest of the drive was spent in silence, soon the rocky biome around the highway was replaced by tall trees of various types and the smooth paved road ended to become a barely discernible trail that waved through the trees. Mike was about to ask where they were going but soon enough a lake came into view, a cabin of fair size resting on one side camouflaged by the foliage around it.

Kitt entered the garage and parked next to Mike's Volvo, directly in front of him several tables had been moved and were grouped together as Billy, Zoe and Sarah got their makeshift setup of four laptops and one big desktop together before they could connect KITT's core to it and see what they were working with.

Sarah immediately went over to Mike as he climbed out of the Trans am "Please tell me you guys got it"

Reaching back into the car Mike handed Sarah the black box, her face instantly changed to one of relief as did Billy's and Zoe's "Yeah, we got him. Hopefully it wasn't too late. When will you be able to check over him?"

"hopefully in the span of another hour, we need to get a few things ready before we can connect KITT's core. How did you get away?"

"kitt did everything, I just jumped out get the core and got back in. I didn't see anyone following us as we went around the city but if someone did then I hope they believe we're still around there somewhere; I really don't feel like having to run away constantly"

"Well with some more luck you won't" The group turned their attention to Michael as he walked into the garage, phone in hand "I've just received a call from an old friend of mine who could help us, we still need to stay off the radar until the dust settles but now that we have her on our side things might just get better"

Sarah worked on setting up the main computer with the spare PC they had brought from the SSC while Billy and Zoe worked on linking the two laptops to be able to work as one and make things easier. plugging in three main cables from the computers to KITT's core she entered a few commands and the three screens started to show various lines of code and files, most had errors brought by the lack of all other systems while a few had warnings and required some attention; with one last glance between her and the two other techs she punched in one more command to allow the AI to access the computers.

From the second he shut himself down all sense of time disappeared, what felt like minutes could actually be hours or vice versa; the black void that was sensory deprivation was the literal polar opposite of what he had been back in his full body, there he was massive and had full control about everything that happened, he could feel everything from a breeze to a full on collision…here? He was no more than a tiny ball of blue light hovering in the void, he didn't know what was happening outside of his casing and the the numbness of state was so much unlike what he was used to.

This was the first time he found himself in this situation, even when Torres deactivated him he had some sense of awareness as he laid around the internet, trapped inside his own core he had nothing. He didn't even have his memories to hold on to since they were stored in a separate section; he was worried for his friends but at the same time he wondered if they were working on a way to get to him.

When he made the decision to turn himself in he did it because he trusted his driver, he knew the man wouldn't give up on him that easy, he's shown that much when he went as far as infiltrating area 51 to get to him. The little ball of light moved around the empty space aimlessly before an external port opened to give him access to somewhere outside of his core.

He was about to rush out before another thought crossed him, what if whoever had opened the port was one of the techs that had forced him into shut down in the first place? He had no way of knowing what was expecting him beyond his core and considering that the FBI technicians had accessed some of his systems quite easily then what was he to think of this?

"Uh oh, Houston we have a problem here"

Sarah walked over to where Billy was working on the main computer "What is is?"

"He's trying to fight back the input; I think he still believes he's in danger"

"Well do something, calm him down"

"I mean I would but he's not letting any signals through to his core"

dragging a hand through her hair she leaned in to look at the computer to read the data being displayed, she turned around to face the Trans am then "Kitt is there anything you can do to help?"

the AI was silent for a few seconds, his scanner tracking back and forth calmly a couple times before he actually answered "I believe I might be able to do something"

KITT was surprised when the blocks he threw over the input channel were not being broken down, it frustrated him to no end to know nothing about himself and the uncertainty and fear started to creep back up his thoughts. Distracted by this he was pulled out of that train of thought when a stream of data and light made its way around his blocks without even breaking them; scared of what this new entity could do he backed away into a corner and shrunk down in anticipation.

Kitt easily bypassed the blocks the younger AI had set up and eased his way into the dark core, slowly he approached the small ball of blue light as it backed away; reminding him with who he was through calm waves of information KITT visibly relaxed and floated back up as he continued to explain that he was safe and that he could trust the input that had been plugged into his core. it took the blue light a few seconds to compile and process the information because of the lack of programs and systems that he was currently suffering but he was glad to know that at least now he was safe.

Mike had walked over from where he had been sitting when Sarah had asked for kitt's help, as the tech was explaining to him why KITT was refusing to take the input more files and chunks of code and binary sequences appeared on the monitor connected to the bigger computer, a simple black text box popped open on top of the running code.

'Sarah?'

A sigh of relief escaped her upon seeing that at least for now there had been no apparent memory loss since KITT was calling her by name straight away, she wasted no time on answering 'yeah KITT it's me, can you perform a self diagnostic once you've downloaded into the computer?'

'I am not sure, but I can try'

'Do that then, we'll be here if you need anything'

'Is Mike with you?'

Sarah turned to look at the man next to her, stepping to a side she gave him space to type on the keyboard 'I'm right here KITT'

Mike had to wait a few seconds before the AI finally responded 'Mike...I'm sorry for disobeying your orders, it was the only way of getting you and the others to be set free'

'Don't apologize, I'm just glad to know you're okay now'

'I tried to stall for more time but they managed to break into my systems through my backdoor and I had no choice but to retreat back into my core'

instead of answering Mike called Sarah over, his full attention caught by that last sentence.

Sarah went over my Mike then, stopping next to where he stood on the computer "Sarah you know how Billy and Zoe said those guys had somehow gained access to KITT's files?"

"Yeah, why?"

"I think they figured out his blueprints quite well, they managed to access KITT through his backdoor, that's why he couldn't hold them off for too long"

"That's impossible, they couldn't have-"

"KITT just told me that, you think it's not possible talk to him. regardless of that, we don't know to what extent they figured out his blueprints but they have all of his parts and components as well as his shell; it we want to stop those guys from using his tech and replicate it we're already running out of time"

"Don't you think I know that? what do you want to do? we can't just go out there to them Mike we are hiding in a log cabin in the middle of nowhere for a reason. if the FBI get as much as a footprint from us we're done for"

"well we have to do something"

"we can't, not for the time being at least, if what your father said is true and he did manage to get some external help then the only thing we can do is wait"

"Well what about KITT?"

Sarah glanced back at the computers where the AI's core was plugged in "what about KITT? Mike he's barely here plugged into those computers there is literally nothing he can do to help us"

"why do say barely here? he IS here"

"You really think that all of him would fit in four laptops and a desktop?"

There was silence from the AI's driver then

"The only parts of him that are here are his core memories, temporal memory and data bank, personality traits and base code that extends to the rest of his systems which are over at the FBI lab" she took a deep breath and looked down "If they did manage to break down KITT's blueprints to a good extent; with all the information on his systems that's stored in other components that they have now and the Mustang body I'd actually be surprised if they don't manage to get another AI working in a relatively short period of time..."

For the remainder of the day Billy and Zoe worked with KITT in making sure that his core systems had not been breached and that there were no missing files, Michael disappeared into one of the other rooms in the house and through the day the others could hear him talking on the phone. Mike sat by the Trans am on a couch that had been moved to accommodate the temporary computer setup and watched the others work on KITT; his mind kept replaying the last few things Sarah told him about the AI just partially being here.

He had his core memories so he knew who they were and his temporal memory and data bank held the last bit of information regarding the last 48 hours before he had gone into shutdown so he also knew the situation they were facing…but what about everything else? Did the AI even know he had his full life missing? He had to know…right?

Kitt watched as the younger AI's driver sat on the couch blankly toying with some piece of equipment as he stared into nothingness, he had helped KITT earlier as well as around this whole process so he should at least try and help his driver as well.

"Mike?"

the man in question looked up suddenly, pulled out of his train of thought "uhh, yeah?"

the Trans am opened his passenger's side door "mind having a talk with me?"

Slightly confused but having nothing else to do at the moment he took the AI's offer, getting up from where he was sitting and dropping inside the car.

Kitt waited for him to close the door and get settled in before he spoke "I'm guessing you have quite a few questions"

"well…yeah, actually. Mainly about KITT"

"well maybe I can help you with at least some of them, if you want"

there was a moment of silence as Mike looked out at the computers "well, Sarah said that even though he's here he isn't exactly 'here' since all of his memories and systems are missing"

"that is correct, yes"

"So he doesn't remember anything other than whatever his core memories are and before the previous 48 hours. Does he even know that he has all of those missing memories?"

"Well…to an extent he might, but since he did go into partial shutdown there would be no record of any lost memories for him; I say he might know about those missing files but that would be simply by logic"

"what do you mean?"

"Well, he has his core memories which could be days or even months apart from each other, logically something must've happened in the space between them and he knows that, he just doesn't know what actually happened in those gaps"

the ex-army ranger remained in silence as he processed all the information, in a sense he knew how KITT felt, what the older AI had just described was pretty much how he felt when he first woke up back in the US from having his memory wiped after the KARR incident, he had memories of everything before and of all that had happened from that moment up until now but there was still a gap in his memories where those months had been erased.

KITT hovered aimlessly around his core as the few streams of data he had around traveled back and forth while Billy and Zoe finished doing the last few checkups on his systems. Another hour flew by before the pair was done and they left him for the night, with nothing else to do he went over the files that he had with him; such little amount of data compared to what he remembered feeling like before all this, his earlier memories on his temporal banks told him this much and the blank errors he received every time he tried accessing some of his core systems only backed that feeling.

He went over to where his core memories had been stored for the time being and started going over them, trying to remember what he could of what his life had been before the 48 hours prior to his shutdown:

When he was first activated in Dr. Grayman's garage, surrounded by discarded car and computer parts, the joy in his face clearly visible when he introduced himself as the Knight Industries Three Thousand.

Having to run away from what in that time he would consider being his 'home' after mercenaries came hunting for Dr. Grayman, meeting Mike and Sarah soon after.

The first time Sarah worked with his father on him and upgraded his software and transformation sequence as the early Knight Industries was starting to take shape.

His first recorded mission with Mike, snippets of the events of that day flashing; running from the consulate, practically flying back to the SSC engulfed in flames to save Mike and Sarah, his near short-circuit when Mike was shot and presumed dead to end the constant threat of his past enemies.

The night Mike took him out on Sarah's birthday.

His first near death experience when he almost blew up when his self destruct sequence had been activated.

The Arrow virus infecting his systems and the aftermath of said event, the endless tests Dr. Grayman ran on him to make sure that his systems had fully recovered from that.

Dr. Grayman's death.

His deactivation and subsequent fight against KARR.

Several moments of back and forth friendly arguments among him and his driver about whatever topic.

The last core memory he had was what had apparently been his last mission before all of this happened; Getting Mike to infiltrate a club, driving him back to the SSC after being drunker than he had ever seen him before, rescuing him him from Victor Galt after he injected himself with the serum and rescuing him for the second time not long after in that junkyard.

As he was going through the last memory the black text box that was him communication to the world outside the computer popped up, getting his full attention.

'KITT? it's Mike, you there?'

'Where else would I be?'

'Guess that was a stupid question...how are you holding up?'

'Well since my core systems seem to have remained unaffected you could say that I am fine. I must ask though, what are you doing still up? I guess all the others have gone to sleep'

'Yeah they have, I guess I just couldn't sleep. I've had a lot of things on my mind since this whole mess started'

'Mike...you knew what the FBI men wanted from the start when they came into the SSC didn't you? that is why you told me to run away'

'Yeah, those guys spoke a little too much for their own good. I was hoping to keep you, as in both you as a sentient being and as a technological marvel, away from them; the last thing we need is another KARR incident. you do remember about that right?'

'I do, I see what you were trying to do and I appreciate it, I'm sorry I disobeyed your orders but when the man that set you free spoke to me he said that if I didn't turn myself in he would lock you, Sarah, Billy and Zoe in prison and I couldn't let that happen'

'it's okay KITT, you were obeying your programming'

'Partly, I just wish they could've given me some more time to create a backup network before shutting down'

Backup?...backup, why did that word pop out so much all of a sudden? He stood up from where he sat at the computer and looked around as if looking for an answer. the room was mostly dark since his father had left with Kitt to apparently talk with their contact; as he paced around the garage suddenly he stopped when he realized what they had to do. falling back into the chair he quickly typed into the textbox he used to communicate with the AI.

'KITT, I think I know how to get you your body back'

 **This chapter does have a scene created for it so feel free to have a look at it over on my DA page, thanks to those that have been reading the story and enjoying it!**


	7. Chapter 7

**Sorry it took me so long to update this time but I had a few rough weeks at the end of November and start of December and I couldn't bring myself to keep writing until a few days ago. next chapters might be spaced out a bit because I'm going out of town and won't have my computer with me so this will most likely be the last chapter for the remainder of the year so to those reading may you have a merry Christmas and a happy new year.**

"Sarah!"

startled by the call the tech jumped from the couch where she had fallen asleep on in the living room, Billy and Zoe were also sleeping around in the room and while the first one ended up falling to the ground Zoe simply groaned and covered her head with a pillow. "What happened?! is KITT okay?!"

"He's fine, but I know what how we can get his body and his data back"

"what? w-what are you even doing up at this hour?"

"Doesn't matter, look, you said KITT had a backup neural network didn't you?"

"yeah...yeah he still has that backup"

"Well, why don't we use that to house him instead of these computers?"

"For two reasons, number one: his backup shell is back at the SSC which by now will probably be plagued by FBI guys, making it near impossible to recover, and number two: to fully restore him we would need do download his data into the shell from the SSC's computers since there is no other way of moving that amount of data other than that"

"Come on there has to be a way, we could work something out, at least like that we'll have KITT back and actually have something to work with"

Sarah crossed her arms and tapped her foot as she considered his words...maybe there could be a way to get KITT's body back…

The man sat at his desk going over some papers as he waited, that damn tech better have some progress done or he would make sure to end his career here for letting the AI's core be stolen by its former driver. he had already sent his people back to the SSC but of course no one was there, he knew the group was smarter than that but with their technology if one of them showed their face on any place with a camera they would know exactly where to find them.

He stopped writing at the sound of someone knocking on his door, the one man he had been waiting for finally came in.

"So, Dillon, I've been expecting your progress report for the past couple of hours so why is it still not here?"

the head tech walked over to the desk and rested his hands behind him "Well, Daniel, sir...since we don't have the core containing the key programs that interconnect everything it will take us a little longer to get another AI in working order"

"So you've done nothing all day long then"

"no no that's not what I meant, let me rephrase; progress regarding software interconnection will be slower than we anticipated"

"Which means?"

"It means that while it will be a little while until we can connect all the systems we have all other individual components done and being recreated as we speak"

"What about the car?"

"Well, we've figured out it's mechanical components that allow it to transform as well as the storage structure of some of the panels that serve as a base for the nano-tech to reform itself. the nano-tech itself is a problem since it remains deactivated when the car is offline so we really can't get the formula of how it truly works. we haven't received the test car that we're using to implement our findings yet either so that part is pretty much halted until then"

"We don't have time for you to practice, we need to find where the FLAG team is hiding and take them down, we need that AI finished asap"

"but sir I don't think that-"

"Rebuild the Mustang, I want it back the way it was when it arrived in 24 hours and once that's done find a way to finish that AI prototype with what we have; use it to locate them and finish the job"

"What do you want us to do with the other AI if we find them? the Knight Three Thousand"

"see if you can get any information out of it, if you can't or there's nothing of importance just destroy it, I don't want it bringing any more trouble to us in the future. go back to work, time is of the essence"

Dillon stood up and began walking off, stopping at the door "Sir...there is, another problem"

"what is it?"

"When Knight came for the AI's core he wasn't alone...he was with the Knight Two thousand"

The suited man looked up from his papers abruptly then, slowly standing up "That's impossible, the Knight Two thousand was dismantled over 25 years ago, there are hard files that prove that"

"well then there is another 80s Trans am with a red head scanner helping him. just wanted you to know that"

The tech left and the FBI coordinator sat back down as he gave this new problem rounds in his head before accessing his computer and searching for some old files.

As morning arrived Mike paced back and forth in the garage as he waited for kitt and his father to arrive, he had a plan to get KITT another body fit to house him but he needed their help to get it. the shell was stored in the SSC's lower levels, they could bring it up to the surface easily enough but the real problem began with getting away.

Sarah had already checked the SSC's cameras and sure enough the FBI was all over the place, making getting in and out without being seen very hard. his plan was simple enough, create a distraction to draw the men around the back up front so that they could get in, get the backup shell in the cargo elevator and bring it up quick enough to avoid being caught and drive off with kitt as an escort in case they did get spotted and their quick getaway turned into a shootout.

He sat at one of the computers as he told his plan to KITT who simply answered with stating that he didn't have the necessary information to calculate the success probability (though that might've been for the better in Mike's opinion)

Practically jumping from his place as the garage door started to open the man waited until kitt was inside and the door was closed once again before stating he had an idea, bringing Michael out of the car rather quick.

"Idea? what do you have in mind?"

"KITT has a backup shell in case any events should make his original one inoperable, that shell is stored in the SSC and it might be possible to get it back with a little help from kitt"

"Mike you do know that the SSC is full of FBI guys right?"

"Yeah I know but if we can find a way to draw them over to the front we could get in and out relatively easy"

"Even if we did how would you get the backup shell out?"

"I can drive it out, the Nano-tech hasn't been activated yet so it's pretty much a normal Mustang with KITT's base engine but even just that should be enough to get away"

"and what if they start shooting at you?"

"Well I'll have you and Kitt for backup in the whole getting away part"

at that moment the AI turned his full attention at the two "Excuse me?"

"Come on Kitt we need your help for this"

"...well to be blunt the chances of your plan succeeding are-"

"Don't say it, I'd rather not know that. this could be the only way we can get the upper hand again again"

Closing the door to the Trans Am Michael walked around the car and closer to Mike "Don't be so sure about that"

"What? why? you got any new info?"

"something like that. let's just say I know someone that once was the head of the first Knight Industries, she holds all the legal rights and has more than enough contacts to back you and your friends up to make the FBI and the other agencies get off your backs"

"Well that's great, when can we go back to base then?"

"in two days she'll be going over to talk some sense into those guys, until now we're best out here waiting"

"Waiting? while those guys use KITT's parts and software to create another AI? if we manage to restore KITT then at least he can help us slow them down"

"Kitt can take care of that, we need to keep a low profile until then"

Mike took a few steps back until he was leaning against the table where KITT's core was plugged in "You're not getting my point, I don't want to go out there just to get KITT's help on our situation, I want to get his shell so that he can be back to being himself...I was speaking with him last night, seeing as he has literally nothing to do in his current state.

"He might not have all of his memories but he does remember how it felt to be whole, to be able to access a program without receiving an error and to have control over himself. here? he barely knows who he is; I don't know if you understand this or even if you ever had to go through anything like this with your kitt but regardless I know that you know being an AI such as either of these two's driver is more than just that

"He'll protect you with his life, maybe at first it was just programming but i'm sure you'll agree with me when I say that it became much more than that as time went by. KITT disobeyed my direct orders when I told him to stay away to protect not only me, but the others as well; he knew that if he turned himself in the most likely scenario was deactivation but he did it anyways...he knew that I would go after him and I did.

"We got him back with us...but only partially, I am asking for your help to get his shell back but I'll still be going even if you don't help"

At this Michael nearly jumped "Go on your own? you'll be practically handing yourself over to the FBI on a silver platter"

"You don't know that, I already managed to get in and out of area 51 once without getting caught, pretty sure I can manage to do it again on the SSC"

the older man took a step closer with a stern expression "Don't do this Mike, give it a couple more days and we won't need to break in"

"How are you so sure? I know you've got your contact helping us but that's no guarantee that she'll convince the board to let us be. what if they still refuse? what happens then?"

There was silence between the two as they stared each other down until Kitt broke the tension

"Mike will not get caught because I will be helping"

Michael instantly looked over at his partner, rather displeased "Kitt? don't tell me you're on his side now"

"While you two were arguing I came to a simple conclusion Michael; He is your son, which means that if he's set his mind on something then there is no use in arguing against it, might as well help him. plus, if we're being honest wouldn't you be acting in a similar way if you were in his place?"

Mike climbed out of the Trans am at the duct he had used when they first had to sneak into the SSC after their first shutdown, Kitt had managed to access the files in the complex using keys and codes provided by Sarah and had thankfully recovered a blueprint of the ventilation system which Mike had in a small backpack he was carrying. as soon as the man had disappeared into the ducts Kitt moved out to his waiting place.

"I can't believe you talked me into this"

the AI looked at his driver "I wouldn't be too worried, his plan is quite simple and the men inside don't have access to the storage floors or the security cameras, it would be quite hard for him to get spotted while he's inside, the only possibly dangerous moment comes when he tries to get away"

Mike crawled through the ventilation ducts as he followed the map he had brought, moving exceptionally slow whenever he had to go through areas where he could see people walking around through the vents. he moved through the ducts slowly so it took him some time to actually get to his destination; silently unscrewing and opening a vent he jumped down and stretched his back muscles that slightly hurt at being tensed up constantly for so long but he was glad that he had made it to his destination.

typing a code into the touch pad on the wall the service elevator opened, the space was big enough to easily fit the Mustang with some space to spare. he got in and the doors closed behind him as he entered yet another code that allowed him to choose a floor; touching the one labeled 'Storage and Hardware' the elevator started descending.

The ex-army ranger stepped out of the elevator and into the large open area, stacks of boxes and equipment were neatly organized in shelves and designated areas, now came the hard part for him: finding the backup shell and locating another thing Sarah had asked him to, something that apparently looked like a fuse box mixed with a computer stuck to a wall somewhere in this open space. good thing; there were only four walls to look around in, bad thing; those four walls practically covered the full area of the SSC…

deciding that despite the size it would probably be easier to look for the fuse-box-computer thing he started to trot around the edges, keeping an eye out in case he spotted some large wooden crate or storage container big enough to house a car.

after a little while of switching between trotting and walking he found what he had been looking for: on the wall was what he would describe as a fuse box on steroids, it was password protected and was almost as big as he was tall. holding a hand to his earpiece for a few seconds he waited for the clicking sound that signaled his earpiece had been turned on.

"Sarah, can you hear me?"

Back at the cabin Sarah and Zoe jumped at the sudden call, the first reaching over to access the laptop they were using to communicate "We read you Mike, what's your status?"

"I've located the thing you asked, now what?"

"There is a red USB in one of the pockets in your bag, plug that into any of the USB ports and focus on finding the shell"

"What just that? plug in that USB?"

"it's more than just that, I'll explain later. go look for the shell, we don't have much time"

Trotting through the large hallways made out of stacked boxes and shelves Mike looked around for anything big enough to store a car, he cursed the mess that the place was in as he complained that it had taken him less time to find KITT in the larger area 51 than this. as he ran through another set of hallways he stopped and walked back to one he had passed when he saw something out the corner of his eye; behind a stack of boxes of files and equipment he saw what looked like a large shipment container, walking over he started to move things over and sure enough he was standing in front of a container more than large enough to store a car.

Using a few basic tools he had brought he started unbolting one of the sides, slowly dropping it to the ground when he was done to avoid making too much noise, wiping the sweat off his forehead he straightened up to see a perfect mirror image of KITT; a practically new Shelby GT 500 KR Mustang. not even bothering to try and hide the smile that plastered itself on his face he walked over to the driver's side door, it was open and the emergency keys were stored in the glove box.

it took a few tries to get the engine going after being in storage for over a year inside the container but eventually the healthy roar of the modified engine was music to the man's ears.

as silently as possible Mike drove the car over to the cargo elevator, climbing back inside the Mustang after entering the same code as before to take the elevator up to the top floor. As he wen up he pressed a hand to his ear once again.

"Dad?"

"How are you doing trying to find the car?"

"I've got it, I'm going up on the elevator now so get ready to meet at the rendezvous point, can Kitt see if there's anyone around the back?"

there were a few seconds of silence as Michael checked over the perimeter with Kitt through the cameras "There are a few patrols around the back, Kitt and I created a distraction up front but despite getting the attention of most of the people that were hanging at the back there are a few that remain, they'll alert others as soon as they see you so try and make it to us fast"

"Well this car does have KITT's base modified engine, outrunning them shouldn't be too hard"

"No, but you are vulnerable to their guns so I wouldn't get too confident"

Mike sat in the car as he waited for the elevator to reach the top floor on the hangar. As soon as the doors opened he would take off as fast as he could over to where Kitt and his father were, he really didn't want to damage the shell since they had no equipment at the cabin that they could use to repair it. He only had one shot a this and by god was he going to make it count…

As he felt the elevator jerk to a stop he gripped the steering wheel and got ready to step on the gas. The doors started to slowly open, letting the orange sunset light seep through as he saw two cars parked inside the hangar with four people standing around them; all turning to look at him when they heard the doors opening.

Their talk was interrupted by the sound of doors sliding open, him and his three colleagues exchanged looks upon seeing the back Mustang sitting on the large cargo elevator. Confused he took a few steps away from his car and towards the Mustang in an attempt to see if there was anyone inside but the windows were too heavily tinted and didn't allow much of a look. he turned to look at the others but they all just shrugged in confusion "Did any of you get informed about this?" looking back to the black car he was about to take another step towards it when the engine came to life and the car all but launched towards him and the others. they all ducked out of the way as the car flew past them but they recovered quickly and got in their cars, chasing after the Mustang as they called reinforcements.

Mike shot out of the open back doors of the hangar, two FBI cruisers some distance behind him at a steady pace; Kitt wasn't too far away from the edge of the SSC's perimeter, he was hiding on the side of the road waiting for him to drive by so he could pull in right behind him to provide cover from the bullets that were sure to come eventually; he just hoped that he could reach Kitt before that happened.

the first gunshot ringing behind him made him look back to see one of the guards hanging out from the passenger's side window with a gun in hand, aiming low enough for Mike to guess he was trying to hit the rear wheels. Pressing down on the accelerator he managed to put some more distance between them in hopes of making it harder for the guard to get the shot he wanted, he looked around in hopes of seeing Kitt somewhere but no such luck; his heart was pounding with adrenaline as he started to wave around the poorly paved backroad to avoid hitting any bumps that would easily throw him off the road at the speeds he was driving at without KITT's assistance.

As he kept driving he had to slow down to be able to maneuver around the road as well as be constantly looking behind him to dodge the incoming bullets aimed to the car's tires, the engine's constant whine and rumble became nothing more than background noise as he focused solely on the road and dodging bullets, mumbling under his breath about his father and Kitt being nowhere to be seen he was nearly startled off the road when a black blur came out of the dry desert brush behind him, just barely missing the cars rear end as he stopped in the middle of the road, making his pursuers screech to a stop before the Trans am started to drive after him, catching up and staying right behind him.

once the situation had calmed down and he was able to slow down he turned on his earpiece.

"Nice of you two to finally show up"

"We kind of ran into some trouble trying to catch up to you driving through the side of the road"

"Well you couldn't have arrived at a better time, I'd give you that. but if we do anything like this again try to not cut it that close"

Michael did not bother answering as he inwardly smiled, hey, at least he had taken out those two cruisers back there, telling Kitt to drop some oil on the road as they drove off was more than enough to keep those guys from following, all they had to do now was get enough distance between them and the SSC fast to be able to make the FBI lose their trail on them.

Sarah paced back and forth in the large garage, KITT had noticed Mike's absence since the man usually talked to him during the day about this time but she didn't tell the AI why was he absent, Mike wanted it to be a surprise for him so when KITT did end up asking about him she simply answered saying that he had gone on a errand with his father and thankfully the AI didn't prod the subject any further. Despite this she couldn't help the uneasiness she was feeling as she waited for the tow to arrive, their last contact had been just as they were leaving the SSC's general area but she of all people knew that a lot could happen in the span of time that had passed since then.

The woman abruptly stopped her pacing in front of the computers when the garage door began to open, Billy and Zoe poking their heads into the garage upon hearing the same sound; sure enough the black Trans am rolled in and a practical copy of what had been KITT's Mustang shell came in shortly after, parking closer to the computers. with a grin on his face Mike climbed out of the car and walked over to Sarah.

"Well, here it is, how long until you can get KITT settled back in?"

"Well I really don't know, could be a couple days"

"Couple days? why? didn't take long at all to download his data into out mix of computers here, why would dumping the data he has on the shell take that much longer?"

"Because first we need to upgrade the programs that are already installed in the shell to match KITT's updated and improved codes and structure, after that's done we have to start working on rearranging packages and preset files so that when KITT is back in the car he can actually have control over what he does"

Mike stood quiet as he thought things over before his mind drifted off to something else "Hey, that USB you had me plug in, what was it for?"

"Well..." a smug smile crossed her face as she walked over to the computers to start working "let's just say that as soon as I can get the shell hooked up to one of these computers I can download all of KITT's data that's stored in the SSC plus after that's done it'll release a virus that will scatter or delete most of the files back there so those FBI guys won't be able to use our own information against us ever again"

"umm...when did you have the time to prepare something like that?"

"Oh I've had it for a while now, was saving it for an emergency and I think this would qualify as such"

"Guess so" Billy and Zoe walked back into the room then and began going over the Mustang, popping the hood open and plugging in some equipment they had brought over from the SSC just in case. when Sarah headed for the car and climbed inside Mike took it as his cue to leave and let them work; he only hoped that it wouldn't be too late by the time they were done.

Daniel entered his office, two days had passed since Knight had managed to get away with the AI's core but since his techs had been making steady progress he didn't mind it too much, of course all that changed when he was called out for a meeting where this woman, she had introduced herself as Jennifer Knight, began shooting argument after argument about how his plan of giving the other agencies access to the Knight Industries tech was dangerous and flawed.

Even though some of the board directors still stood with him after her hour-long speech she manage to fully persuade them into shutting down his project after bringing up some of the legal and more official issues that this was causing, of course he fought back for it but in all honesty she had all the legal aspects on her side. quickly packing up some important files in a suitcase he closed his laptop and took off, a couple of his personal guards were already waiting for him at the exit of the building with a car running and ready to go; as soon as he was on his way out he took his phone and called the head tech in charge of the AI project.

"Hello?"

"Dillon I need you to pack up everything you have from that AI, pick a group of your best techs and meet me at a secluded location"

"Move everything? How am I supposed to do that? and why?"

"I've sent two large trucks your way, you can fit the car and most of the equipment in one of them, use the other to take whatever's missing and to transport your techs and yourself. don't concern yourself with why, just do it"

Hanging the phone before he could be asked any more questions he made another call to send over the trucks to his lab, he was going to keep going with this project and prove the board of directors how wrong they were for shutting him down…

KITT hovered aimlessly around in the computer he had been housed on, he had been done pondering about what his previous life had been other than his core memories since there was no use in getting frustrated over something he couldn't possibly solve. The Knight two thousand had been good company for the nearly four days that he had been confined to this state and Mike coming to chat with him on the evenings or at night, telling him of what they were doing on the outside, was more than enough to keep his processor busy.

That being said he had been left on his own for most of the day so far, not even Kitt had bothered to show up and with literally nothing to do he was starting to get bored of just…'being' there; he went back to his recent memories and once again felt that rush of power and energy coming from his own form when he was back in the Mustang, there he was strong, powerful, resourceful...useful...here? he was starting to feel more as a charge than a partner, not being able to do anything at all to help.

His musings were cut short when a text window opened, it was Mike.

'Hey KITT, it's Mike, you there?'

'I am, hello Mike'

'We've got some good news, apparently that friend my dad talked the board of directors into leaving us with you and your tech only, we can finally go back to working as we were before'

'That is good to hear, I do hope that they will give back the information they have stolen as well'

'They will, but it'll be up to us to make sure that no copies were made before it's turned back to us, mainly you to be honest since you are the only one of us that can track such a small package in a world of encrypted data'

'Well that is going to be a problem'

'How so?'

'without my body I can't to anything, I don't have access to any of my functions of information'

'Oh I wouldn't worry about that'

Confused KITT was about to ask what he meant but before he had the chance he detected a new output source open into the computer. as he approached it he began to feel a familiar sense of power that he immediately recognized.

Throwing himself at the source he was welcomed to see a familiar space with multiple ports that faintly glowed with his same shade of royal blue, he hovered around the open space over to his core as it pulsated in its state of 'hibernation' and partial activation. reaching out the AI entered his main core and slowly he started to feel himself grow and spread across all of his systems, regaining control over himself and recovering all of those memories that he had wondered about for the previous couple of days; after he had reconnected with all of his internal systems his vision of his now royal blue internal systems began switching to that of the faces of his friends in front of him, multiple startup messages clouded his vision but he was still able to identify each and every one of them as well as their hopeful faces waiting to see if he had settled properly back into the shell. a few seconds passed before he finally settled properly and he reached out for the car's controls; he blinked his head and tail lights several times before finally reaching for the ignition.

Upon firing up his engine the AI relished in the powerful feeling that came with the deep growl of his modified, specialized engine; he turned his wheels slightly to the sides and was glad to feel the numbness he had been living on for the past days be replaced by the feeling of smooth concrete under his tires and the cool breeze brushing over him from a window.

the group stared at the Mustang as it stood in the garage, the hood was open and several cables were plugged in somewhere in the engine bay, Mike took a step towards the Mustang as he watched his lights blink several times, the scanner was tracking at a snail's pace as the engine came to life, the squeaking of the tires turning on the smooth polished concrete made him stop just as the scarlet red scanner blinked on and off before settling on a regular speed.

"KITT?" he waited for a few seconds as he kneeled down right in front of the car, placing a hand over the scanner.

"Mike?"

there was an audible collective sigh of relief from everyone in the room upon hearing the AI's voice, Mike half laughed with relief at knowing that his partner was okay "Yeah, KITT, it's good to have you back"

"I am grateful for all that you have done, but I must ask; how did you get my shell back from the FBI so soon?"

now it was Sarah's turn to speak "Well this isn't the same shell you had a before, as you may start to notice soon, this was the backup shell that we had stored back at the SSC. Mike went over to recover it and Kitt and Michael helped him in getting away; Zoe, Billy and I worked the past two days in setting up this shell with all of your software upgrades but we can't give you back your mechanical upgrades until we get back home"

"Mike said that you managed to talk the board of directors from the FBI from using the Knight Research technology, I assume they should be leaving the SSC as well"

"They are, but we don't know in what state they could've left is so we'll have to get there and fix whatever mess they made before starting on upgrading you to how you were before"

"And what will happen to my old shell?"

"We'll see about talking to them about giving it back, it will be harder to make sure they return all your components since by what Mike saw they were fully dismantling it"

silence fell over the group for a few seconds, KITT was processing all of this new information and correlating it to data he had as he made some more research, almost on accident he stumbled across an FBI report just as it was being submitted, the level of clearance it had was high enough to call his attention and he accessed the file.

he skipped through most of it since it was all formalities but eventually he stopped upon reading some of the lines on the file:

'FBI operations coordinator Daniel Price has taken the AI research to an unknown location without authorization, it is through these means that we inform the head of directors of this matter since it requires immediate action'

the rest of the file contained nothing of importance and after reading those few lines the Mustang knew that they had a big problem in their hands.

"Mike?"

the man turned to look back at to Mustang from talking to his father, the tone in the AI's voice causing a slight feeling of worry to creep into his head "Yeah KITT?"

"I believe we have a problem"

hearing this the room went quiet, all ears falling on the AI. his driver glancing between them as he took a step towards the AI "What kind of problem?"

"I accidentally intercepted an FBI report that said the man in charge of their AI program, same man that I made the deal with to set you free, got word from the decision the board of directors made about cancelling their program and decided to take matters into his own hands. he has taken all of the research they made as well as a group of techs to an unknown location"

"well that doesn't sound bad at all…"

"what's worse is that by the information the FBI investigators have gathered from other techs that were working on my shell it would seem like he was no longer planning on fully reverse engineering my shell and programs; by the time he took everything the car was nearly done being put together again and they don't know how much progress he had on breaking down my codes"

"Well, we need to find where he's hiding and stop whatever he's planning before things get out of hand"

"I'm afraid that could become a problem?"

"why is that?"

"Even though I am pretty much back to my body there are still mechanical upgrades that need to be done so that I am back to where I was on my old shell. if we happen to take too long to find out where Daniel is there is no way for us to tell what could be waiting for us then"

"Well then let's start heading back to the SSC to get you upgraded again"

The four-car caravan left the cabin a few hours after that, KITT was leading the group as he plotted the fastest route that would take them to the SSC where hopefully they would be able to get him back up to how he was before anything bad could happen. Mike was of course riding with him with Sarah and Zoe on the Focus, Billy on Mike's Volvo and Michael and Kitt watching their back.

As he drove through the highway leading the small group KITT relished in the feeling of the rushing wind and the deep rumble that his engine produced, he could hardly believe that it had been less than a week since he was separated from his shell; to him it had truly felt like much more than that and the experience in itself was something he would rather never have to go through ever again. as he glanced at the map with his destination plotted and watched over his speed and course on the road he took a look at Mike as he slept in his passenger's seat; the man had barely gotten any proper sleep since this mess started so it was no surprise that he had fallen asleep not long after they entered the highway.

Reclining the seat down so that his driver was in a more comfortable position the AI looked back out to the highway and let a sigh escape through his vents as he relished in the feeling of wind around his shell and the road under his tires. he was drawn out of his enjoyment by a ping from across his link to the Knight Two Thousand; turning part of his attention over to him and leaving the driving to his systems

"I see you've pretty much gone back to your former self"

"Well, not entirely, I do have all of my systems back but some of them don't work as they did before or simply won't run at all"

"Why is that?"

"Well, my transformation sequences, for instance, are now limited to only allow me to make slight changes to my appearance; a change of color or switch to another type of Mustang, for example"

"So you can no longer switch over to your attack mode right? the one you used to get away from me a few days ago?"

"yes...that one I cannot do, however I can switch to a mode that makes me more aerodynamic and serves the main purpose of increasing my speed"

"Well that doesn't sound half bad"

"It's not, but I do have to say that the transformation sequence in itself is less perfected and slower than my previous one"

" define 'less perfected' by what I've seen even some of your basic functions are things I can't even do"

"It's more volatile, so to speak, the nano-bytes re-assemble themselves directly on my live surface rather than on segmented panels under my shell which makes me even more vulnerable in between transformations. In dangerous situations this could be quite bad"

"I guess it could. and can you be updated to have your new transformations sequence then?"

"It is possible but I don't know if it can be done fast enough. despite being something that really needs to get fixed I think that we should leave it for last; should anything happen requiring me to go out while in the middle of the upgrade I won't be able to use any transformations at all and I won't have the regenerative of protective properties of my Nano-skin"

"Which I'm guessing would leave you as vulnerable as any other car would be"

"Exactly"

for the remainder of the drive back to the SSC the AIs discussed possible scenarios and theories as to where this man could be hiding; it had to be a secluded place to be able to conceal the energy signature KITT's shell produced, the thermal radiation emanating from the Mustang's Nano-skin was incredibly low but if you had the right equipment then it was quite easy to find if it were out in the open. the place had to be hidden even from the FBI and other government agencies so it had to be somewhere far from busy streets or even a town, i had to be far from any place with a security camera; nowadays something hard to find, the good thing about that was that they could use that one thing to narrow down the list of possibilities.


	8. Chapter 8

**Sorry this took so long to finish but I barely have any free time to write, anyway off I go**

Shortly before arriving at the SSC Sarah received a call from Carrie back at the FBI offices, informing her that since they were no longer fugitives the head coordinator had called back everyone that had been sent to their base before, she told Sarah that if anything else of interest happened that she would inform her before hanging up the phone. When they finally arrived at the place KITT had to hack into the main door to open it since the device Sarah had used to wipe out all the information had also left the complex in a shutdown-ready status that kicked in after the FBI agents had left.

The two cars drove in and settled in place as the group of humans climbed out, Billy, Zoe and Sarah immediately headed for the main computer in order to try and start the sequence that would bring the complex out of the lockdown status it was on. after helping with the initial codes Sarah took the Mustang to one of the lower levels via the cargo elevator Mike used before to get to one of the labs her and her father had worked on when the SSC was just starting to take shape, with Mike's help she got all of the equipment she needed from adjacent rooms and just about an hour after first arriving she started to work on upgrading the AI to his previous state.

Mike sat at a desk in the room as he watched Sarah work on KITT, disappearing inside the cabin or submerging herself in the engine compartment with either a set of tools or cables in hand, only coming out to check the data displayed on a set of computers that sat on a long desk in front of the car. other than asking him to hand her this tool or that as she worked inside the Mustang he thought he was pretty much useless in this situation, maybe he should go back up and help the others reorganize the place since after the FBI left it was looking like a complete mess.

Standing up from his place he walked over to Sarah just as she stood back up with a groan after being bent over for a while in her attempts at reaching down to disconnect some of the older components in order to make some space for the newer ones. "Getting tired yet?"

"I don't really have time for that Mike, we need to get KITT back up to how he was as soon as possible"

"Right…" shoving his hands in his pants' pockets he looked down at the floor as he spoke "Look I'm going to go back up and help the others out in fixing this place. you pretty much got everything here figured out"

"Well I really can't let you do that"

"what? why not?"

"I will be needing your help down here"

"What for? I can't do any of the hardware work you're doing on KITT and the only thing I've been doing is hand tools over to you from time to time"

The woman reached up and closed the car's hood, turning to look back at Mike she spoke to the AI without looking away from the man "KITT shut down all systems, we're going to start adding some of the components under your panels and I think it would be better if you remained shut down until we're through with that"

without a word the AI complied and with a low humming sound the scanner went dark as the internal computer was shut down "This, is what you're going to be helping me with, I can't remove KITT's body panels on my own without risking scraping or denting them on accident, his Nano-skin doesn't work if he's deactivated so he's basically just a normal car" walking around the desk she pulled out a large box containing several conglomerations of electronic components, cables and aluminum boxes that looked like smaller, lighter versions of the core without the Knight Research logo or 3000 inscription "bring over that tool box over there, we're going to need to unscrew several things before we can actually remove some of these bigger panels or doors"

"uhh...sure" bringing over the box he handed some of the tools over to Sarah as she half sat on the driver's seat working on getting the door off of it's hinges, as she started to remove some of the bolts Mike held the door to keep it from falling once it was loose enough.

after a little while the door came off and Mike simply set it on a side as he went back over to where Sarah was now working on removing the rear side panel above his wheel

after a while of silence and some thinking Mike finally decided to just ask the tech the one question plaguing his mind "So…"

"So?"

"You told KITT to shut himself down because you were going to be doing this...why?"

without looking away from her work she continued "Well, as you know KITT can feel everything around him, physically I mean, anything from the wind rushing around him as he drives to a bullet bouncing off of him or a full on collision."

"Yeah, I know he has a specialized program translates physical contact somehow but-"

"well, do you know how exactly it works?"

"not...really"

"As you mentioned before, yes there is a program that is in charge of translating physical sensations but all that program does is measure and transmit said sensations" finally getting the side panel completely detached she put her tool down on the floor and signaled Mike to help her pull off the piece. with a final click the panel came off and Mike saw for the first time the inner workings that made KITT that much more different from any other car.

under the panel laid an intricate network of cables that perfectly covered the car's shape and followed the body's lines, intertwined and connected into large ports the man guessed that just like this one the whole car was covered in the network of interconnected cables which truly allowed him to feel the world around him to a scale he couldn't even dare to imagine. he took a step closer to the exposed section of the car after carefully dropping the side panel off to a side and he inspected the inner workings carefully "So this is how it works?" kneeling down he traced the cables as they flowed perfectly with the lines of the car "it's...amazing"

"Bet they never told you about this on your training sessions did they?"

"No, but I do wish they had"

"Well...they had a reason to keep it from you, since you're his driver, and us scientists had signed an agreement to keep it only between the few of us that worked on his design"

"Why?"

"Higher ranking officers though it would hold you back from taking certain decisions if you knew the AI could be susceptible to pain. of course my father and I strongly argued against it but they never listened to us and if we spoke of this to anyone we risked getting kicked from the program, more so me than my father for obvious reasons"

"so...he feels pain in the same way your or I would?"

"not exactly, for most bullets, for example, he wouldn't really feel any pain; think of it as if someone were throwing small pebbles at you, is would be more of an annoyance than anything. though there are some exceptions, certain bullets with explosive charge would be slightly painful. bigger weapons like those Knight Industries missiles we ran into early on would get pretty close to the feeling you would get if someone punched you across the room"

Mike remained quiet for a few seconds as he looked over the car and processed the information, thinking back to all those times KITT had been damaged; the Arrow virus, landmine, KARR…

How had his system translated that much damage to him? "I still don't really understand why he had to be deactivated for this"

"Well, to put it in simple words let's just say that since these cables are hypersensitive to touch in order to transmit even the slightest of feelings to the AI even a soft touch directly on them could be translated as an impact that would be strong enough to leave a dent on the car, imagine how the program would translate disconnecting entire sections of the network"

"I'd guess it wouldn't be short of losing a limb"

"well...partly, there would be a strong feeling for a second or two but after that it would just be a feeling of complete numbness since the system doesn't know how to process the lack of input"

"right...well at least it doesn't last"

for the remainder of the day and half-way through the night the two worked on getting KITT's mechanical components in place, it wasn't until the earlier hours of the morning that Sarah had finally been able to finish getting most of his main mechanical components back in place and was ready to bring him back online.

Sarah closed the car's hood and waited a few seconds before placing her hand above the dark scanner, a second later his external display identified her and brought up her profile alongside a touch pad to input her personal code and fingerprints. a few seconds passed after she got her password in and the touch screen disappeared as a low humming sound came from the car, the scarlet red scanner coming back to life.

KITT stretched back into himself as he felt the power up sequence starting, he reached over to systems he had been receiving errors from since he was downloaded into this body. the AI was glad to see that as he checked over said systems most of them, despite still being incomplete and in need of specialized software upgrades, were no longer throwing back errors as he tried to run them.

waiting for his vision to adjust while he finished a quick self diagnostic KITT saw Mike and Sarah expectantly standing in front of him.

"morning KITT, have you finished checking the new systems?"

"Good morning Sarah. yes I have, everything seems to be in order. Thank you"

"You're welcome, now would you mind taking us back to the main chamber? I want to try and get at least a few hours of sleep before getting back to work on setting your upgraded software again"

"Of course" the Mustang opened both his doors and his driver and tech hopped inside, taking control KITT drove around the outside of the complex once they were out in the back end of the hangar and headed straight through the tunnel leading to the main chamber.

Once inside the AI parked on the gimbal and let his passengers out, Kitt remained parked on the space to his left and since Michael was nowhere to be seen he guessed he had found a pod to sleep in for the night. Zoe was no longer in the room and Billy was just about to leave after working on restoring the backup into the mainframe; once he was done the three disappeared into the hallways and headed to their pods with one last word from Sarah telling him to recharge for a few hours.

Waiting until everyone was asleep KITT dimmed down the lights to their night setting and began making the final checkups for the night. Once he was sure that everything was set he turned his attention back inside himself and began working on restoring some of the programs that were complete just enough that all he needed to do were some adjustments to fit the newer software he had before. a while went by as he kept working when his concentration was broken by the AI sitting next to him

"So are you planning on recharging anytime soon?"

"Partly...maybe, depends on how far I can get on finishing setting up some of the codes I can modify. I have all of my mechanical components back but I still need to work on reconnecting my previous software with the systems. Sarah was planning on doing that tomorrow morning but I could get at least a few of the programs reconnected and updated to save her some work"

"Well it is nice of you to help her on that but don't you think you should recharge at least for a little while? you did just get back in your shell this morning"

"I've got enough energy still to last a few days without having the need to recharge and since we are running on a tight schedule getting back in shape quickly is quite a priority. I will use the remainder of the night to finish setting up the programs I can fix on my own but if I do finish before the others wake up then I just might make some time to recharge"

Despite not being around the Mustang nearly enough to start making any assumptions or guesses Kitt felt like there was something bothering the younger AI, he also knew for a fact that he had been lying when he said that he had plenty of energy to last him a few more days but he knew better than to try and argue with him, especially if there was indeed something bothering him or causing him to be acting this way, knowing that he wouldn't be able to make any more advancements he simple decided to go into recharge mode himself until the others woke up.

As KITT kept working on fixing and adjusting some of the code lines he had this bad feeling at the back on his processor that kept telling him that this man, Daniel Price, wherever he was he was going to make his move soon, his best guess would be that he would try and get back to him and destroy him with the new AI he was creating based off of his own code and hardware to prove that he was in the right for doing what he was doing; in reality he was sure that he would not be able to create an AI that was superior to him and he didn't say that to compliment himself, the moment the man had messed with the code Sarah and her father had so carefully created, updated and cared for for over a year was the moment he had doomed himself to fail. this did not mean, however, that if it came to a battle he had a guaranteed win since even if the AI in itself isn't fully complete or fine tuned like he was Daniel could still use whatever resources he had at his disposal to 'upgrade' it plus he highly doubted that he would be back to his full working self before he finished.

KITT stopped working and let a sigh escape through his vents, sinking lower to the ground as a feeling of worry momentarily occupied his full attention and a hundred scenarios ran through his processor. after a few failed attempts at getting back to work around his systems he knew that he would not be able to regain focus for the time being so instead he started his engine in silent mode and shut off all the alarms before sneaking out of the room and the complex itself.

hitting the highway the AI went hard on the gas and began picking up speed at a fast rate; knowing the area around the SSC quite well he marked the stretches of road that went around the perimeter and began doing laps around the large area in an attempt to clear his processor enough to get back to work. Thirty minutes, five laps and an internal fit of frustration at his inability to focus later he began heading back inside the complex; switching his engine back to to silent. As he entered the hangar he began making his way to the entrance of the tunnel where he now spotted at the edge of his headlights the silhouette of a man standing right in front of the open doors and blocking his path. Slamming on the breaks the sound of screeching tires sliding across the pavement in an attempt to stop his momentum echoed in the cavernous space as he fought to stop himself, his front suspension taking pretty much all of the carried momentum and pushing down his front end until he finally managed to stop with his bumper inches away from the man's legs.

His sudden state of alarm gone he turned to the man who he could now see was no other than Mike, his surprise and fear quickly turning to asking himself what in the world had driven the man to think standing there in the dark was a good idea.

"I thought Sarah had told you to get some rest, what are you doing out here?"

forgetting his previous questions the Mustang remained silent for a few seconds as he thought of a believable excuse but in the short time he couldn't think of anything that would convince his driver so instead, rather sheepishly he simply told him the truth.

"I...I was thinking about Daniel, and what possible plans he could have while I got some of my more complete systems fully reestablished. eventually I couldn't focus anymore so I thought that driving around for some time could help"

"wait you couldn't focus? this whole situation is troubling you quite a bit then isn't it?"

"I'm just worried about the information he has about me and what he could do with it, add to that the ability the techs he has working for him have and and that the only thing we partly know is that we are going to be his first target. is it really that hard to believe that it's giving me so much trouble?"

"Well when you put it that way...not really, I just didn't think it would get to you this much; you know, being a sentient supercomputer capable of figuring out pretty much anything"

"My knowledge comes from research and experience, to this date I have never been in this position and there is little to no related situations I can use to find a way out or around our current predicament"

"Well maybe you do need to rest up and slow down for a couple hours, by what you tell me you're most likely just blocked after being overwhelmed with new information once you had returned to your shell"

"How could I when all of you are in danger? by programming I cannot let my guard down if there is a possible risk of any of you getting injured"

Now able to see the logic in the AI to all of this Mike quickly though of a good possible answer to appeal to his core program "well how about this for your programming: if you keep this up you're energy cells will be low and you won't be able to think clearly if Daniel does com after us. We're all safely inside the SSC and perimeter alarms will tell us if anything gets close now that they've been fixed up by Billy; for you to be able to put up a fight against that guy if he comes you need to be ready otherwise he will win...plus I really doubt he's done with modifications he is sure to make so quick"

the AI gave his driver's words rounds in his processor, he was right in pretty much everything he had said...he knew this already but why had he not been able to really understand it until Mike brought it up?

the car opened his driver's side door then "do you want a ride back inside?"

"sure" walking around the open door Mike sat on the driver's seat as the door closed on its own, he looked at the AI's voice modulator as if expecting for him to keep up the argument but to his surprise he was silent up until they were back inside the main chamber.

after a few seconds of silence Mike opened the door and climbed out with a sigh, closing the door he walked up to the front of the car and kneeled down to be at 'eye' level with him, keeping a hand on top of the scanner for support.

"Give some thought to what I told you okay? you don't have to do what I said but just...think about it" standing back up Mike gave the hood a pat before he began to walk away and have another attempt at getting some sleep before morning really came

"Mike?"

The man stopped and turned around to face the Mustang "yeah?"

"Thank you"

Mike smiled at the AI as he watched the scanner track back and forth slowly, turning back around he kept walking off towards his pod "Good night KITT"

A few hours after that, once sunrise had fully passed Mike was the first one to wake up, trying to keep the noise down he went over to get something to eat for breakfast before walking over to the main chamber, he was happy to see the Mustang's scanner was dark after their previous talk, he even found it slightly amusing that for once he had beat the AI in being the first one to wake up. not too long after he settled on the couch his dad walked in with a coffee in hand

"I see you found the coffee maker"

"I sure did, you're up early"

"was about to say the same thing about you"

"how is your KITT's still recharging?"

"well it wasn't easy to get him to, found him driving around outside earlier; seems he's more worried about this whole situation than we thought. what about your Kitt? didn't think he would be the one to sleep in either"

before Michael could reply the scanner on the Trans am lit up "I have been awake for a little while now, I just didn't have the need to keep my scanner on"

this started the back and forth banter between the tree up until Sarah walked into the room with a sandwich in hand, after greeting everyone and having some participation in their conversation she began focusing on retrieving some of KITT's backup files from the main computer now that everything had been fully restored thanks to her father's backup system.

it wasn't until about an hour later that KITT finally began to power back up, his scanner tracking back and forth at a snail's pace as he booted up all his systems before speeding up to his normal speed. as he greeted everyone Mike walked over and stood directly in front of him with his arms crossed.

"So, I thought you had said you were fine on energy KITT, how come I managed to get up before you?"

"Really Mike, I think we have more important matters than discussing the fact that you managed to get up earlier than me for the first time after well over a year from working together"

From where he was sitting Billy muttered a low 'oof' that Mike simply addressed with an unamused look before turning to the AI with a fake hurt face "ouch, no need for that KITT"

before Mike could continue or the AI had a chance to answer Sarah turned around from the computer she was working on and tugged on Mike's shirt "Mike, leave the car alone and go get ready, I need to adjust a few things on KITT and you need to go out with him and make sure some of his main functions are working again"

with a half salute Mike walked off then and Sarah looked at the AI for a few seconds before returning to her work 'Hopefully we can finish this before Daniel does…'

For the remainder of the morning Sarah switched between working on the main computer and inside KITT, Mike had spoken to her earlier about his talk with the AI during the night and she was just as surprised as he was knowing that this mess had been really putting some pressure down on the Mustang.

as she worked on reconnecting some of the software through the code she thought about this and after a while it started to click, she understood why this was giving KITT so much trouble; he had been at that lab and experienced first-hand how god Daniel's techs were, he knew how dangerous the man could be based on that and leaving him for this amount of time with his shell and pretty much all the equipment alongside his software and mechanical blueprints to guide them through his inner workings only made things worse. as if it that wasn't enough he also knew that Daniel would be coming for them and his core program dictating the preservation of human life, mainly those of his driver and friends, would be heavily conflicted by this since technically because they had no idea where he was at the time in his eyes they could all be in danger at any given time.

Sarah leaned back in the car's passenger seat and crossed her arms as she looked at the files and information load up while also compiling some of her new code to verify that there were no errors, she looked out through the windshield to see Billy and Zoe working on the main computer and she could see Michael talking with Kitt, his expression telling her that he was just as worried as the rest of them. she leaned her head back and looked at the car's roof absentmindedly with a sigh 'we're not going to finish before Daniel, he knows where we are but we don't know where he is and the government isn't of much help...if we're going to have a chance then I need to change our focus'

"KITT?"

"Yes Sarah"

"Stop the compiling, save whatever's been checked and has no errors and just get rid of the rest"

"may I ask why are you having this sudden change of plan?"

"it won't be taking Daniel too much longer to finish, we won't outrun him so the best thing we can do is focus only on your offensive capabilities until then"

"but if we don't finish setting up my transformation protocols and programming of my nano skin I will be left completely vulnerable"

"I know, that's why we need to get this done fast, if we finish I can keep up reprogramming your nano skin and hopefully get it to a point where you're not that badly outmatched when it comes to defense"

"and do you think you'll manage to set all my offensive programs back in place before Daniel is done?"

"no, I don't think I can KITT...I know I can do it. there's no other choice anyway"

Daniel paced around the secluded warehouse he had picked to settle in for his temporal hiding place while the modifications to the Mustang were being done, he had been cramped up in this place for the last week but he was glad to see quick progress despite having only a fraction of the techs he had back at the FBI lab. The car was pretty much back in one piece and only some of the panels were still missing due to having some issues fitting in the upgrades he had made for it, he really had to be ready for when the time came because his first stop once the AI was finished was the SSC; he was pushing his techs to finish up fast so that he could go after the Knight Three Thousand before he was fully repaired in order to get a real advantage against it.

Suddenly stopping he crossed his arms and looked over to where he saw several of the techs all at one computer. he walked over towards them and pushed a couple out of his way so he could see what was it that had them all so focused here. he looked at the screen and saw bars of code running in the background with a single black text box over it all, a greeting in white text from one of the techs was at the top and underneath it a second greeting in response on green text.

He realized now why the techs were so excited, they had managed to replicate the AI at least to an extent, it could answer to simple prompts and questions and it was conscious of it´s electronic surroundings. he gave the lead tech a pat in the back before sending them all off to keep working on the shell, they had a functioning Artificial Intelligence now, all they were missing was a suitable body…

The rush had been in near constant swing since Sarah had told the others of her plans on focusing on KITT's offensive capabilities first, Mike had jumped at the idea saying that it was far more important to keep the AI safe, arguing that he wouldn't even be able to shoot if half his systems were damaged or offline; there was some truth to what he was saying there but in her eyes it would be better to have a quick, aggressive fight rather than a slow, endurance match which deep down she knew would be hard for them to win.

On several occasions during the week Michael and Kitt had left to go over to the FBI headquarters closer to them, the ones where they had taken Mike and the others before, to check if they had any more information as to where their guy had gone, Carrie had been with him on the times he had visited and she had helped him with getting past certain restricted areas and to have him and Kitt help with what they could, taking advantage of the AI's abilities when given access to the FBI´s network. despite their efforts though the progress they were making was slow and they were far from pinpointing an exact location for Daniel and his techs

Mike sat on the couch in the main chamber of the SSC, watching Billy and Zoe argue about pointless things every now and then and Sarah moving from working inside KITT, to working under him and going back and forth from her laptop and the AI's engine in a never ending cycle. after deciding that he had watched enough of the same thing for nearly the whole day he stood up and intercepted the head tech before she could get back inside the car

"Mike, what do you want, I'm busy"

"I know, I noticed, you've been there all day long. why don't you take a few minutes to rest?"

"I'll rest when we're done with KITT and find Daniel, until then there is no time to waste" she began to move around the man but he managed to grab her arm before she could walk around to the side of the car

"Sarah, I know you want to get things done but working non stop for almost over a day isn't healthy, for you or KITT"

the tech took a step back and sighed, knowing KITT was too focused on a new set of codes she had set she pulled Mike off to one of the hallways "I know...this whole mess is just taking over all of us at this point"

"I talked to KITT about this a few days ago and it seemed to work, at least for a while"

"he's been very quiet lately, doesn't take his processor off the codes I push, if he's not looking at that then he's working on getting other things that he can fix on his own ready"

Mike looked over Sarah's shoulder to where he could see where the Mustang was sitting, he noticed the low brightness on the scanner as well as the really low speed it was tracking at "Let me take him out for a while"

"Take him out? we'll lose too much time then"

"You need to take a little while to rest, so do Billy and Zoe, let me take him out while you three take your minds off of this for a few; he needs it too as much as he denies it"

"well...go ahead and try, go fill him up while you're at it, the car's tank was at a quarter when you brought it back to your dad's house it's nearly empty by now"

"Will do, go have some rest, I promise you can keep working on him as soon as we're back"

"Don't take too long, we don't have much time to waste"

"Don't worry Sarah we'll be back before nightfall"

The ex-army ranger walked back into the room and instantly stopped to close the car's hood, finally bringing the AI's attention to the outside

"Mike? may I ask what do you think you are doing?"

"Put those endless lines of code away KITT, we're going for a drive"

"A drive? Mike we can't there are things that I need to keep working on before-"

the man rolled his eyes as he dropped down inside the car. Closing the door as he spoke, interrupting the AI "You need fuel, I'm taking you to a gas station. Sarah's orders"

A few seconds of silence later and without another word from the car the files and lines of code displayed on the HUD disappeared as the gimbal began turning, the sound of the engine coming to life filling the room as both disappeared into the tunnel that would lead them to the outside.

Mike allowed KITT to take control of the car as they left the area around the SSC and entered the highway, as he sat on the driver's seat he couldn't help but notice the slight change in the pitch on the car's engine; something that to the untrained ear would be impossible to notice but he had learned to identify not too long after he really started working with the Mustang. he became slightly lost in thought before he was brought back to reality rather abruptly when KITT swerved to get back in the lane

Looking behind them to see why had KITT reacted like that he found that there was nothing thou could've caused him to swerve so abruptly

"What the hell was that?"

"I'm sorry Mike, I got...distracted"

"Distracted? what could catch your attention so much to keep you from noticing you were drifting off into the oncoming lane?" he waited for the AI to respond, taking note of how the red dot in his voice modulator that served as his 'eye' was slightly pointing down. then it hit him "You were still working on that code weren't you?"

the silence that came from the Mustang was a clear confirmation. with a sigh Mike sat up straight and took a hold of the wheel "I'll take care of the driving for now, but not for you to keep working in there. stop whatever you're doing and just enjoy the drive; how long has it been since you've done that anyway?"

Mike felt the wheel loosen up and the engine dial down to an idle rumble as the AI stopped putting pressure on the accelerator. internally KITT rather reluctantly put away his files and set himself to look at the outside world.

Keeping his vision with only his speed, map and coordinates he looked at the warm tints on the clouds that signaled the approaching sunset, he felt the wind rushing past his hood and roof smoothly only to be bent around his rear spoiler to increase his down force; wheels spinning increasingly faster as Mike sped up to proper highway speed on the concrete and the occasional rock that was thrown up to bounce against his undercarriage. for a moment he remembered the numbness he felt when he was stuck on that computer and almost on accident he went back to his core memories, back when he was first activated by Dr. Grayman.

The sudden awareness of everything and nothing at the same time, when he knew no more than what was directly on his files; oh how far he had managed to come in such a relatively short amount of time.

Getting his attention back to the road ahead of him he began to truly relax since this whole ordeal had started, feeling the weight of his driver in the driver's seat only helping to ease his worries, knowing that if anything did happen right now at least he was with him.

it took the two just under an hour to reach the nearest gas station, Mike got down and went inside the store to pay for the gas, KITT remained partly lost in thought as his worries kept nagging at the back of his processor, for both his own good and Mike's peace of mind he forced them back and turned his attention back to the store as Mike got out, opening the gas cap and placing the nozzle in the man leaned against the side of the car as he waited for the tank to fill up.

The man stared off into the changing colors of the horizon as he waited, he crossed his arms and leaned fully against the side of the warm surface on the car

"KITT...Do you remember that talk we had a few days ago, when we first got back to the SSC"

"I do, why do you bring it up?"

"Well, both Sarah and I have noticed that you have been pretty much absorbed completely in making advancements on your repairs and restoration of programs"

"I have but-"

"I know I know, there is no time to waste and Daniel with your technology will be a potential threat until we know exactly where they are...look I can't be ordering you to stop working, I won't do it either simply because I don't want to put you through the ordeal of not being able to work while your processor is still fully occupied by the same thoughts. you've been quieter these past couple days and that was the main reason I asked Sarah to let me take you for a ride, to try and get you out of the SSC and hopefully clear you processor a bit from all this but it'll all be for nothing if you just keep thinking about it"

there were a few moments of silence between both and only the wind rustling nearby trees created some sort of ambiance.

"You asked me earlier when had I last been able to enjoy a drive, the answer to that would've been before our last mission regarding Victor Galt...today though, when I did put away my work and you took over the driving I began once again enjoying just the drive like I hadn't done for a while. I appreciate what you are doing Mike, as little as it may look like"

"Well I'm glad to hear it KITT, these past couple days have been pretty stress heavy on all of us, even more so on you from what we've been seeing"

"I'm just...worried. I know your father is trying to get some more progress done on finding Daniel by going over to the FBI every couple days and I thank him for that; I just hope their help there is enough to find them"

The nozzle clicked as the car's tank was finally filled back up, removing it and putting it back in place Mike closed the gas cap and climbed back into the Mustang, he took a hold of the steering wheel and put the car in gear; he waited a couple seconds and looked over at the voice modulator, the red dot looking in his direction "You wanna drive back now?"

"If you don't mind"

"as long as you don't get us both killed by drifting off the lane" with that the driver sat back and crossed his arms as the Mustang began taking off on its own.

Picking up speed as soon as he hit the smooth highway roads the AI kept his attention on the road, partly leaving the driving to his systems he let himself truly relax with the feeling of the pavement under his tires and the wind rushing past him as he drove, the sun was significantly lower down now than when he had left the SSC and the sky's warm colors were mixing in with darker shades of blue from the approaching night.

By the time he had the hangar on sight the sun was already half way under the horizon, he signaled the entry doors to the hangar and the entry tunnel as he slowed down just enough to allow the larger doors to open; driving inside the main chamber he was surprised to see Mike's father had already returned, part of him hoped that they had found a lead on Daniel so that he could have some peace of mind while he continued to work.

Mike walked around the car and headed to where his father was sitting at one of the computers, blankly staring at the computer screen

"Hey dad, you're back early, did you and Kitt figure out something more about Daniel's location?"

the older man stood up with a sigh, a serious, yet tired expression on his face "No, we didn't get any advancements on his location, we did manage to figure a few things out though but...it's bad news"

"How bad?"

"I think it would be better if we got the others here, just so that they know as well"

"probably, KITT, do you think you can call them here"

from his place the Mustang's scanner tracked back and forth, Mike noticed the slight increase in its speed, giving away the car's uneasiness "I already have, they should be here shortly"

sure enough in the span of the following few minutes Billy, Zoe and Sarah all entered the room, picking a spot on the couch or one of the chairs

"Well seeing as everyone is here I think it's time, sadly Kitt and I couldn't get any more information with the FBI about Daniel's whereabouts but we did get a call from an anonymous informant, apparently someone working with Daniel right now. from what he told us it seems like Daniel already managed to put together a functioning AI, based off of whatever information he could pick apart from KITT's parts and blueprints"

Mike leaned back on his chair as the room became silent, everyone trying to digest and think of another plan of action with this new piece of knowledge. as he too thought about this his gaze drifted off to the AIs, if Kitt was any similar to the Mustang when it came to expressing certain emotions through their scanners then he could only guess by the slow speed that he was deeply focused on something; the younger AI on the other side seemed to be back to that state of worry he had been trapped in for the past few days.

Michael walked over to Kitt as he spoke again "there is one good thing though, from this new information. Kitt has been working ever since we got that call to try and track the unique electronic signature that an AI such as him and your KITT have, since this new AI was created using KITT's base code he's using the Mustang's signal as a starting point, setting his programs to identify anything that's similar to it around the area we isolated as the more likely place for Daniel to be hiding"

Sarah stood up then "That...could actually work, Kitt can you send over to the main computer the sample you have? Billy and Zoe can help you search to make this quicker while KITT and I focus on getting everything ready and working"

with a flash of his ruby red scanner the AI immediately sent over the sample alongside some more information before resuming his search.

With the new information the group set themselves to work that very night, Sarah spent more time working under KITT to make sure the last few components she had installed were secured and working, less than 24 hours after that she had finished setting up most of the AI's offensive capabilities and had sent Mike out with him to test them out and make sure they were working properly; thankfully both came back in one piece from that endeavor about an hour later and once again Sarah began the routine of switching between working underneath the car, tweaking components and connections around the engine bay and then losing herself for a couple hours in the cabin re-writing and updating programs before linking them to KITT's systems and have him go over them to make sure they were working properly while she started the whole process over. they were running out of time, and fast

Daniel walked around the black Mustang as he watched his techs tinker around inside the car while others messed around the engine compartment, they had just installed the AI and were making sure the codes were not conflicting with each other or causing any errors, going from simple tests to sort of 'teach' the AI how to move around this new body. in the span of a couple days they had managed to go from simple commands like turning their headlights on or off and opening or closing doors to driving through a full on makeshift obstacle course; there had been a few issues here and there as they kept doing tests but Daniel knew that while they were here conducting tests that were in his opinion, useless, Knight and the others were restoring the Knight Three Thousand back to his full self, there was also the issue that he hadn't thought about until now which was the simple fact that the Knight Two Thousand was not only still functioning, but it was working with Knight and his friends which meant that the fight he had planned to get rid of the Three Thousand would end up being a two against one.

Going back to where he had set his office he made a few arrangements that he was sure would make the fight be only him and Knight...


	9. Chapter 9

Sarah climbed out of the car for the third time that day after the same batch of code refused to compile, she had gone over the code three times now making slight adjustments and tweaks to see if it would finally work but it continued to return with an unknown error. She paced next to the AI with crossed arms as she kept thinking about what could be wrong with her codes.

"If you want I can try and see if I can find what's wrong with the code Sarah"

the tech stopped her pacing and looked at the midnight black Mustang, his scanner tracking slowly "Thanks KITT but...if your compiler doesn't know what's wrong I don't know if you'll be able to detect it"

"I can still try, I've already finished integrating the last batch of code you gave me this morning and have no further tasks for the time being"

"Go for it then, I'll go through it again and see if I can find anything but tell me if you do notice something that can be causing this to not work"

Mike had been standing on the catwalk over the main chamber for a while now, staring blankly at the Mustang down below as he thought about what his father had said about Daniel a couple days ago, he was brought back to reality when he saw Sarah get out of the car and pace around for a few seconds 'and that makes it three times in the span of this morning…'

Running his hands through his hair he leaned on the railing, the woman had been working since yesterday on reprogramming the car's Nano-skin and progress had reached a near standstill since the previous night; for some reason part of the new code seemed to be conflicting with the old one and rejecting any updates or changes made. He heard KITT offer her help on going over the code and he hoped that the AI would be able to help her in some way, maybe once they got over this bump progress would go back to the pace it had been going at throughout the previous night. It had to be faster, if they wanted to beat Daniel that is.

After a while contemplating the scene below the man finally decided to climb down, he walked calmly in front of the Mustang as he made his way over to the open passenger door where Sarah was sitting, sliding a hand on the car's side as he walked; the slightly warm, sleek suface giving a nice contrast to the cool underground base. going around the open door Mike kneeled down to be able to see inside the car, holding on to the seat for support he found himself face to face with one of the most complex algorithms and codes he had ever seen on the Mustang

"Well I think I see why you're having so much trouble with this now"

Only taking her look away from the programs for a split second to give the man next to her an unamused look she took a deep breath before resuming her work "My dad pretty much worked on the first iteration of these codes all by himself, I can't imagine how...I can't even manage to update it properly"

"Well how did you do this before? you must've been in charge of upgrading this at some point"

"well not fully but yeah I have done it before, just not from near scratch"

"didn't you have the old code to base off of?"

"I do but this version of the code is literally the version KITT had when we first met almost, it's not perfected, optimized or tweaked to fit the advanced interface...I have to do that part from scratch and if I'm honest I have no idea what to do to get it right"

"But you said you were going to be able to do it, you...are going to be able to...right?"

"I didn't know I would need to do these things from scratch...I will be able to do this eventually but I don't know if I will manage to get it done before Daniel makes his move"

"Have you asked the other Kitt for help? maybe another perspective may work if KITT can't find anything once he's done going over it again"

"I haven't but I just might when he comes back"

"What about Billy and Zoe?"

"They're exhausted right now, I told both of them to go get some sleep after I saw them actually trying to work things out instead of arguing about some pointless thing, I might ask them for help later as well, I'm willing to go for anything at this point"

Both continued talking for the following couple minutes until the AI interrupted

"Sarah?"

Sitting back up straight in the seat after being leaned back while she went over the code again she immediately focused her eyes on the running code KITT had brought up on the HUD "you found something KITT?"

"Have you tried reversing the order of these three sections of the code?"

Leaning in closer to properly look at the sections of code that KITT had highlighted Sarah read them carefully and almost letter by letter, trying to make out a relation between them that could've caused KITT to think that this could maybe be the solution she had been searching for "Actually KITT...I think this could work, at the very least it might get us out of this standstill we've been on for nearly all morning"

Setting herself to work on adjusting the sections of code the AI had Highlighted, took her a good couple minutes but eventually she managed to set it up as suggested, leaning back in the seat she went over the whole section of code that had given her trouble and after she had read it all some parts made a bit more sense with the new structure KITT had suggested

"Okay KITT, give it a try now, compile it and check for any possible errors, tell me if it works once you're done"

As the Mustang went over the code Sarah leaned back on the seat and waited, hoping that at least te program would be able to run now rather than simply refuse to work at all

"Sarah?"

"Yeah?"

"I believe that it's working"

"Did it not give you any errors?"

"I do not believe so"

Quickly climbing out of the car Sarah closed the door and stood by the desk with the main computers, Mike following her slightly confused as to what she was doing "Okay KITT; go to attack mode"

Putting away all codes KITT complied and began his transformation sequence. Mike switched looks between Sarah's face and the Mustang as he transformed.

Panels slid over each other and switched around to give the car the more aggressive look proper of his attack mode, he was glad to see that Sarah had finally gotten the Nano-skin to work but that feeling was washed away when he looked back at Sarah and saw her joy turn back to a serious face just as the transformation sequence was finished.

placing a hand on the tech's shoulder he spoke "Something wrong?"

Running a hand through her hair as she sighed she answered without taking her look off of the AI "The code didn't work…"

"What do you mean? he did transform like he used to"

"not exactly"

"what is that supposed to mean?"

"Yes, his transformation sequence is back to switching panels around the car rather than rebuilding on top of itself out in the open but I don't think you noticed that rather than replacing fully formed panels the Nano-skin was still reforming as the panels settled in place, this remains as a possible risk if KITT transforms during battle"

"So even though the program works this doesn't get you any further in fixing it"

"it does, it's just not working properly for some reason...and I think that this also brings up another issue" without another word she walked off and out of the room, leaving a confused Mike behind.

"So you don't know how to fix it then KITT?"

"I will keep looking over the program and try and see if I can find anything else that could help"

"Do you know where Sarah went then?"

"I do...I don't know if what she wants to prove will be correct or not but part of me hopes it's not"

"why's that?"

before the AI could answer the woman stormed back in the room with a gun in hand, stopping at the edge of the room and aiming for the car's side, confused the driver immediately sprung to action and headed for Sarah "whoa whoa whoa Sarah!"

three shots rang in the large room as Mike turned away from the gun for a couple seconds, taking the pistol from the woman's hands in a quick motion "What do you think you're doing?!"

"just look…" looking back at the Mustang he saw the three distinct markings were the bullets had hit the side of the car as the Nano-skin took the next couple seconds to fix them completely "Nano-skin's slow to respond now, which means it's not longer optimized for repairing damage and when it comes to being constantly hit or shot at it could really impact performance...if enough damage is done the nano bites could just all out shut down and leave KITT defenseless"

"Well that doesn't sound good.."

"Sarah should I switch back to my normal mode?"

"No, stay in your attack mode just in case, if anything does happen, you don't have to use your transformations in the middle of a chase or a battle"

Michael walked out of the FBI building and headed over to the Trans am parked on the side of the building, the car automatically opened the door for him and he dropped down on the tan seat with a sigh

"We really aren't making any progress are we pal…"

"not since we got that anonymous call a few days ago"

"and your attempts on tracing that call got you nowhere right?"

"right"

he sighed "we are running out of time to figure this out Kitt...next thing we know Daniel will be knocking at our door asking for a fight"

"And that is why we would be better off if we go back and help Sarah with KITT's upgrades"

"Well I don't know of what help I could be but you'll be of more use back then for them than just here"

The pair took off and hit the highway in under ten minutes, heading straight for the SSC, it was still early in the day but clouds had began covering up the sun, giving the impression that it could start raining anytime soon. letting the Trans am take over the driving Michael leaned back in his seat as he thought about any other ways to try and find Daniel now that he realized that the FBI wasn't helping them in getting over this bump faster. closing his eyes he leaned his head back and took a deep breath, the drone of the engine and the soft seat pulling him closer to sleep as the stress of the past couple days took its toll on him.

Lifting his head back up after a few seconds he got a glace at the rearview mirror, spotting a familiar black Mustang some distance behind him

"Well would you look at that, look who's up and about already"

"KITT?...thought Sarah still had work to do on him"

"Maybe she finished? contact him will ya, let's see what progress they got done"

"Mike?"

"Yeah KITT?"

"I am receiving a call from your father, would you like me to put it up on speaker?"

"eh, sure why not"

Wiping his hands from the stains of oil he had acquired after helping Sarah work a few things out around the AI's engine he sat down at the main desk, the tech walking back into the room with Billy and Zoe right behind; chips and assorted snacks on their hands

"Hey Mike, I take KITT's doing better now?"

"yeah we've been working all day so far...well, Sarah more than me but we ran into a few issues that we hope the Two Thousand could help us solve"

"Well you could've just waited for us to get back, what are you two doing all the way out here anyway?"

at that sentence everyone in the room stopped, Billy and Zoe exchanged looks while Sarah simply looked at KITT with a blank expression "uhh...dad?"

"yeah?"

"KITT and I...we're at the SSC right now"

Michael's heart stopped as he looked at the rearview mirror again at the approaching black Mustang "I think we might've found Daniel…"

standing up from his place Mike approached the car and closed the hood, walking around to the driver's side as he spoke "Get out of there dad, we're coming for you two"

Ending the call Mike was half stopped by Sarah then "Mike you can't KITT's defenses are way under the minimal working standards and-"

"We have to go Sarah, it's out of the question"

Pulling down the car's door to close it the gimbal began turning around, the sound of the modified Mustang's engine firing up drowning the sound of the alarm that signaled that the entry and hangar doors were opening.

"KITT track down their location and plot the fastest route to intercept them, give me the ETA once you have it"

there were a few seconds of silence before the AI responded "Because of the attack mode out estimated time of arrival to the intercepting point is that of forty minutes"

"that's too long…"

"I am sorry Mike, there is nothing I can do that I am not doing already to make our drive there faster"

"it's fine...let's just hope we're not too late"

Switching between watching behind him and the screen on the dash of the Trans Am Michael's heart pounded as he watched the Mustang behind him quickly approaching. he knew about the abilities KITT had from what Mike had told him before as well as from what the AI himself had said; plus the fact that he had no knowledge of what modifications Daniel could've done.

"Kitt can you scan the car? see if you can get a clue at what we're up against"

"I doubt I'll be able to KITT has advanced programs that prevent this types of things"

"well just give it a try, because of the short time Daniel had we can hope that not all of the systems are finished or fully working"

after a few seconds of nothing but the drone of the engine's turbines as the car kept accelerating the AI finally replied "You were right Michael, I was able to get a relatively superficial scan but with it I can tell you that there are several programs that are still offline or highly unfinished...I did notice something though"

"what's that?"

"of the cluster of systems that are not operational none of them have to do with defensive of offensive capabilities"

"So basically he focused all this time to get those two aspects to full power…great, anything else we need to worry about?"

"Well I cannot detect exactly what kind of weapons or offensive programs he put in the car"

"and what CAN you detect about that then?"

"I can detect traces of explosives and heavy ammo"

"sounds like fun. get us out of here Kitt, use super pursuit mode if possible; we need to make time to give Mike a chance at catching up to us if we want to get out of this one...I feel like we're gonna need them…"

Mike sat on the Mustang as he watched the map and timer counting down to intercept his father, he blankly watched the numbers go down at a steady pace for a couple minutes before he noticed a significant speed increase in the countdown "Numbers are going down faster...why?"

"I assume Kitt has entered his super pursuit mode in an attempt to put some distance between them and...my clone"

"clone?"

"given the situation and our lack of knowledge outside of the fact that the AI daniel has was made out my my own parts, programing and just about my whole shell I believe that the term clone is fitting"

"guess it works for now" watching the two dots in the map displayed on screen the thought of asking KITT to go faster crossed his mind as he saw the digital speedometer stay at a steady three digit number through bumps and light bends on the road, that thought was quickly shut down when he took a quick glance at the analog speedometer on the dash just behind the steering wheel and noticed the red needle shaking just past the top speed mark. the AI couldn't go any faster even if he wanted to; the only thing he could do now was wait and hope that they were able to intercept in time.

As the distance got shorter and shorter KITT kept nearly his full attention on driving, using scanners more so than his own visual range, part of him remained weary of what this encounter would be as he kept very present the fact that his systems were just under his minimal working standards, this uneasiness though didn't come from fear for himself, but for Mike in case the worst case scenario were to play out.

Kitt kept part of his attention focused on the car quickly approaching right behind him, even as he remained in his super pursuit mode he was able to tell that the distance between them was getting smaller by the minute and if his calculations were correct then KITT wouldn't be making it to them in time.

eventually after a good few minutes the AI noticed that he couldn't get any of his incoming or outgoing transmissions through, he tried getting past the blocking signal but being modern and more advanced technology it didn't take him long to figure out he wouldn't be able to get past it. He tried getting another scan over the car behind them and he was surprised to see that this time he was able to get over way more information than the last time; he quickly went over the results of the scan and upon realizing what had come back he wished he could somehow drive faster.

"Michael, we have a problem"

"What is it?"

"I pushed out another scan of the other AI and there are a few things that are quite concerning…"

"what's that?"

Before the AI was even able to answer Kitt was rammed from behind with enough strength to push his rear wheels off of the ground for a second, enough time to make him start to lose control once they touched back down. making split second calculations he eventually ended on deploying his emergency braking system and retracting the super pursuit mode as the car abruptly slid to a stop in the middle of the road; with barely any time to recover Kitt tried sending over the information he had managed to get from the scan over to the SSC but the process stopped halfway through as he received an error caused by whatever the other AI was using to keep any incoming and outgoing transmissions unable to penetrate the area around both of them.

Michael looked back out of the side window after they had stopped sliding across the road and didn't even have time to warn Kitt about the incoming blow as the Mustang went in for another hit that send them off the road and nearly caused them to flip over once the wheels of the Trans am hit the dirt on the side of the road. the midnight black Mustang slid off the road and stopped directly in front of them where it released an EMP wave that unlike KITT's it was a deep purple in color and left several systems in Kitt sparking as the car was shut down completely; Michael stared out in front of them in expectation for whatever hit was to come but to his surprise the Mustang turned around and left to disappear as it drove off back on the highway.

After a while of keping nearly his whole focus on driving his attention was split after a warning from his internal systems, checking the map he saw that the mark representing the Knight two thousand had disappeared.

"KITT we have a problem"

"I noticed"

"can you get the signal back?"

"I am attempting to do so now but I doubt any attempts I make will succeed in getting the signal back"

"Can you tell what happened at least?"

"I tried getting an aerial view of the area where the signal was lost but whenever I pinpointed the location with the satellite the video feed was blocked"

Leaning back in the seat as he ran a hand through his hair Mike continued to look through the windshield at the blur of grays that was the road, part of him dreading to eventually just see a wrecked mess of a car or a mirror version of KITT staring back at him.

the Mustang began slowing down when an anomaly entered the edge of his scanner range, in a matter of seconds the anomaly entered his visual range, the feeling of Mike sitting up straight on the driver's seat told him that he too was able to see what was up ahead.

The modified Mustang slowed to a stop on the side of the road in front of the black Trans am, the car's scanner was dark but to both his and Mike's surprise it showed no apparent damage other than a scratch or two here and there and a dent on the passenger's side by the front fender. pushing the door up Mike climbed out of the car as the driver's door on the trans am opened, Michael stepped out then, a small stain of blood plastered on the side of his head.

"Dad what happened, where's Daniel?"

"Gone, if he even was inside the car, windows were tinted and Kitt couldn't get anything from it since it kept blocking pretty much all of our signals" he motioned towards the Mustang then "what's up with that? thought you said you had ran into some issues"

"we did, we can't change him back to his normal mode until we fix said issues, or any of his other modes for that matter. you're bleeding"

"I'm fine, banged my head against the side of the window on the last hit"

"last hit? you haven't even explained what happened, and why is Kitt deactivated"

"your KITT's clone blocked everything outgoing and incoming around us, didn't know you could even do that, even after Kitt switched over to his super pursuit mode it caught up with us eventually and rammed Kitt from behind at an angle that nearly drove us off the road; it would have if it weren't for the emergency braking system but what that did do was leave us standing still in the middle of the road. we got rammed from the side and Kitt took the full blow of the Mustang in an area we've always been worried about the MBS as we slid over to the side of the road nearly flipping over in the process.

"I'm sure that first blow shook up quite a few of his systems because in the time it took him to regain himself after it the car backed up and went for the second hit that almost put Kitt on his side, we slid to the edge of the road and a bump of dirt helped him get back on all fours; it got right in front of us and then let out some sort of energy wave EMP thing that left Kitt as you see him now"

"and EMP?"

"no, I've seen your KITT's EMP and this looked different, it might be the same basic concept but trust me when I tell you that it had something special"

"why do you say that?"

"Well normally after being knocked out like that I would be able to bring him back by doing a hard reset of his systems but I've been trying that since that guy left and still nothing"

"he just left after knocking Kitt out?"

"Yeah, surprised you didn't see it, it kept going straight in your direction"

"we haven't seen anyone for miles...KITT are there any side roads we could've passed on our way here?"

"Not between the time span of the attack and us arriving"

Mike crossed his arms as he walked back towards KITT, looking absentmindedly at the road they had arrived from "There's nothing for miles in that direction, maybe we passed a gas station or something but other than that there really is nothing other than…" he stopped, looking at the horizon he saw the small mountain range that was in the general direction of the SSC, the only other place he could think of that was in that direction "Shit…"

Going around the Mustang in a trot he told KITT to open the driver's side door "Dad hop on, we need to get back to the SSC"

"I am not leaving Kitt here, you two go after him, get him before he manages to enter the place"

"but-"

"Go, it's not a question"

seeing the determined look in his fathers eyes and knowing that if he were to be in his place he wouldn't dare to leave KITT's side he simply fell into the driver's seat and pulled the door closed; with a loud roar from the modified engine KITT took control of the car and pulled a clean drift to turn around before slamming down on the accelerator. The whine of the turbos in his engine kicking in when he applied a leveled boost to increase the rate at which he picked up speed, in a matter of seconds he was back at top speed and heading back to the hangar.

Sarah laid down on the couch on the side of the room with her eyes closed, Billy and Zoe kept monitoring the perimeter and waiting on an update from Mike since he and KITT had left about an hour ago but even though she had her eyes closed her mind was far from even considering any sort of rest. The rush of the current situation plus not knowing what was happeing over with Mike and KITT kept her mind going around the same topic as she wondered why hadn't the man called back to report to them yet.

As if on cue with her questions she heard the distinctive sound of the chat line opening up on the main computer, causing her to immediately sit back up as she listened to the report

"Billy, Zoe, is Sarah there?"

Zoe took over the talking now "She's right behind us, listening, what's up?"

"We got trouble, have you guys received any perimeter or proximity alerts?"

"Not really why? is the Knight two thousand with you?"

"No Daniel did something to the EMP and modified it in some way, the Two Thousand was hit with it and my dad is still not able to bring him back"

"Well where are they now?"

"back on the road where KITT lost contact"

"and where are you?"

"KITT and I are a few kilometers away from the SSC, you should be able to pick up our signal in a few minutes as we get closer"

"why are you returning without your dad though?"

"because apparently after attacking them KITT's clone headed over in this direction, yet we saw no car as we headed for my dad, and there were no side roads or any place to be able to hide as we drove by"

"And you assume he's on his way here?"

"If he's not there already…"

"Well we haven't received any warnings at all from perimeter alarms, there's nothing on the cameras either"

"doesn't that sound a bit too familiar?"

"Well I could send Billy out to check"

at the mention of his name the geek instantly turned to look at the woman "Wait what? why do I have to go out and check for the crazy guy in the super car?"

before an argument between both could start Sarah stepped in as she approached the main desk where they were sitting "No one is going out there if we don't know for sure that there is or isn't something out there. How far are you now Mike?"

"We should be reaching the edge of the perimeter in about ten minutes, you guys just keep an eye out, we'll be there shortly"

"will do"

"also, can you guys please contact Carrie to check if she can get someone out there to at least make sure nothing else happens to my dad and the Two Thousand?"

"I'll call her now, we'll be waiting for you guys here...be careful"

Mike ended the call there and looked back to the stretch of road ahead of them, he noticed just then that KITT had been nearly completely quiet the whole way back, he was able to notice a very slight change in the pitch of the engine which in on itself was enough to tell him that the AI was definitely worried. he didn't blame him for it, he was probably just as troubled as he was by the fact that Daniel had managed to go right past them without them knowing.

KITT began to slow down as he finally reached the edge of the SSC's perimeter, he increased the range and intensity of his scanners in an attempt to check if there was anyone nearby, he was particularly searching for another AI with a near identical electronic signature to his own; entering the hanger he dropped his speed down to a hundred kilometers an hour as he looked around the area, there was nothing around that could tell him that there was or had been someone here other than him and Mike. Suddenly with barely a second to react in pure trust to his scanners he slammed on the breaks as an invisible force rammed him straight on his right fender, spreading a wave of blue from the point of impact across a big part of the car as the Nano-skin fought to keep its shape; sending the AI off in a spin that he was able to stop thanks to his increased aerodynamics provided by the attack mode he tried to regain himself from the impact that had left his barely working Nano-skin repairing the damage over the span of a few seconds. as he stood still in the middle of the hangar he pushed the warnings that had popped up after the impact away and focused on the general area where he had been hit, there was nothing there or anywhere in the hangar that he could see that could've hit him like that and even as he reviewed the footage from a nearby camera in the hangar he was left with a lot of questions.

"KITT are you okay?"

"I'm fine, but I have several questions"

"Yeah so do I, what was that?"

"I am still trying to com up with an answer to that very question" once again KITT had less than a second to react to his scanners as he preemptively activated his active passenger restraint system to prevent Mike from hitting against the side of the door when another impact came, this time hitting him directly on his side and making him slide almost on two wheels for some distance. knowing that at least whatever was causing these impacts had to be something electronic in some way the AI quickly charged and released his EMP; directly in front of him and seemingly out of thin air a midnight black Mustang shimmered into view.

It took him a few seconds to regain himself after the second impact but Mike managed to straighten himself up just in time to see KITT launch an EMP, straight ahead of them standing in the middle of the hangar a near identical copy of KITT's normal mode popped out of nowhere as electronic blue waves rippled and sparked around the car until it became completely visible

"KITT what the hell was that?"

"I believe Daniel has managed to create some sort of active camouflage program"

"He was straight up invisible KITT, did your scanners not detect it either? I thought those worked like some sort of sonar at times"

"they do, but I could not detect anything up until when they were less than a car length away from us"

"well we can see them now, surprised and EMP was all it took to take them down"

"I wouldn't be so sure about that"

Turning to look back out to the car in front of them Mike saw how the dark scanner bar suddenly began glowing again. tracking back and forth slowly in a way that mimicked KITT's to perfection "ah crap…"

"I've just received a message from Sarah, she just confirmed that the car does have some sort of active camouflage system that uses reflections from the surrounding environment to create a false sense of invisibility"

"great, anything else before we really start this?"

"yes, as we were hoping the AI is not complete; my EMP managed to deactivate some superficial systems like the cloaking program and the active camouflage, with the cloaking program deactivated Sarah was able to get some specs on the car but there is still much she wasn't able to get"

"Well we'll work with what we got, what did she tell you?"

"From the information that she was able to gather we know that, unlike me, the Nano-skin is fully operational, because they have a modified version of my shell and systems they have just about all the abilities you know I have and maybe even some that I don't. there are heavy traces of explosives which means that they have some sort of heavy weapon concealed. all in all at the present time it would look like we are outmatched when it comes to defense as well as offense"

"Great, tell me something I don't know. anything else?"

"Yes, it appears that Daniel is in fact inside the car"

The standstill between the two cars was then broken as the Mustang began speeding towards KITT who in return matched the action, while Mike questioned the AI about what he was doing KITT simply kept one thought in mind; he knew that they had messed with his core programing for sure but he needed to know to what extent. If this test of his ended up in the result he was hoping for then he at least had one weakness he could grab on to but if it didn't then the task of taking them down would be even harder than it already was considering his defensive and offensive disadvantage.

Keeping a steady speed heading for a head on collision with the new AI he had his scanners working overtime to detect even the slightest movement or falter from his clone, even something as small as a twitch from the wheels to a side could tell him what he wanted since even against own programing Daniel could be forcing them to keep their course.

The distance between the two cars shrunk down with the passing of each second as both AIs continued to pick up speed in a direct collision course for each other, KITT was careful enough to avoid any twitch from his own wheels in case the other AI was doing the same thing he was; he heard Mike yelling at him to veer off course from inside the cabin as he held onto the steering wheel in an attempt to move the car but if it did came to it he would change course at the last possible moment before impact. He focused all his attention on the incoming car for the following couple seconds before he realized the gap he had to veer off was about to end, with a sudden loss of speed and a drastic change of course KITT swerved off to a side just barely missing the Mustang's side mirror as the other Mustang kept its course.

"KITT what the hell was all that about?!"

"I'm sorry Mike, I was testing something"

"What could you possibly be testing that required us to be involved in a near head on collision with them?"

"Programing. I knew that Daniel had probably modified my programing for this new AI in order to remove certain restrictions and make it more...compliant"

"And?"

"Well, there were two scenarios that could've played out: one, The car veered to a side before we did against Daniel's orders because he could've installed a self preservation protocol; or two, we veered to a side because there was no such protocol but Daniel ordered the AI to keep their course against the part of the programing that dictates the preservation of human life"

"Since we were the ones to move I guess he kept that part of the code, but why would he do that if his original plan was replicate you for the other government agencies and possibly the army?"

"Well the thing here is, he didn't keep that protocol either"

"what do you mean?"

"What just happened was neither of the two scenarios that I thought would've played out, as we remained in a direct collision course with each other I focused my scanner and other sensors on the other AI's wheels, if they had faltered or twitched, no matter how small the movement was, I would've sensed it and know that the second scenario had played out. The problem here was that there wasn't a single twitch or move from them, the wheels kept their place locked and did not move at all; this leads me to believe that Daniel did remove the program that dictates the preservation of human life since even if he did have it and Daniel ordered them to keep their course the AI should've doubted at some point and faltered in it's path"

"But it didn't...so what does this mean for us?"

"It means that they have yet another advantage over us"

"Which is?"

"They will stop at nothing to get what they want, nothing can get in their way and the AI itself has no limitations while us, or more particularly I, have limitations; if the situation calls for it I will not attack if a human life is in danger let it be Daniel's, yours of anyone else's. If the worst case scenario does play out I will put my 'life' so to speak, over yours"

"Which would ultimately end up by allowing Daniel to get what he wants...and you probably being offlined" The cabin of the car remained quiet except of the sound of the idling engine, Mike looked back out to the Mustang that was standing still across the hangar from them and at that point he couldn't help but wonder why they were giving them this much time. there was something off about this whole thing and it frustrated him to no end not knowing what it was.

Daniel watched the different statistics and scans that were appearing in the car's HUD, most of his scans on the Knight Three Thousand had come back negative and his new AI seemed to not be able to get past the main protection against incoming scans, it did however manage to figure out a few things about KITT; the AI pointed out how right after their first impact while they were still cloaked it had taken the Nano-skin a few seconds to fully repair the damage. at first Daniel was about to blame it on the strength of the impact but after remembering some of the footage he had acquired about previous times when the Three Thousand had faced some strong hits or important damage it always seemed to get fixed instantaneously...so why was it taking so long to heal now then?

He turned his attention back to the AI across the hangar from them and noticed the car had been in attack mode ever since they passed them on the highway; transformations had been the only thing his techs hadn't been able to fully get through so he was stuck with his AI just being the regular Mustang. being on that transformation would give Knight and his car an advantage over them but since he wasn't able to get full scans through he was hoping that he hadn't been able to fully repair him after getting back the backup body.

"Okay KITT we need to do something before they do, we still don't know exactly what 'upgrades' Daniel could've done but I really don't want to figure it out by him testing them on us. do you have any long range specialized attacks we can do?"

"I do, but the softwares that allow me to access and use them are not yet operational"

"what about your guns?"

"Since they do have a fully operational Nano-skin I doubt my gatling guns will do much"

"So we are down to close range attacks only?"

"for the time being, if I can manage to weaken their Nano-skin to some extent simpler guns and ammo will be able to do some sort of damage"

"If we don't receive much damage while going around them ourselves, remember we still are outmatched in nearly every way possible"

"I know, but there is one thing we do have over them"

"and what's that?"

"That AI is fully based on my internal structure, programming and body, I know how it works as well as where are the weaker spots in the armor where the Nano-skin isn't completely impenetrable"

"Wouldn't they know that too though? I mean...they are in your body as well"

"That AI has been in that body for a very small amount time, there are weaknesses that are not perceptible upon first glance and you can only really know about them from past experiences that in this short span of time I doubt they have found"

"We target those areas then" Mike tightened his grip on the steering wheel as he turned to look back out to the near mirror image of the AI he happened to call partner and friend "let's do this KITT"


	10. Chapter 10

**So sorry that this took so long to update after the last chapter but I got an extra long chapter this time so that'll make up for it...right?**

Michael had been done trying to get the hard reset to work on booting Kitt back up, whatever that EMP type pulse was it had really done a number on the AI, he was now digging around the engine compartment in search of the little box that he knew was the direct connection to where Kitt's AI was physically housed. the gray clouds that had began to cover the sky had darkened their color and made it look like rain would start pouring down at any second; his attention was then split as he heard police sirens in the distance and he pulled himself out of the engine compartment, a small squad of FBI patrols stopped by the side of the road and the woman that had been helping him around the FBI offices climbed out of one of them.

"Mr. Knight, we got a report from Sarah that you had been attacked by Daniel, are you okay?"

"I'm fine, Kitt's the one I'm worried about. He was hit with some sort of EMP blast that completely fried his systems, I'm trying to reboot him using the direct up-link from his neural network"

"Do you know where he went after he attacked you?"

"Mike thought he could've gone back to the SSC, haven't heard from him in about an hour so I suppose he was right"

Turning to one of the officers she had by her side she took out her phone "Take one of these units with you to the SSC, I'll call backup and send a full squad over there before-"

"Wait" Michael quickly interrupted the agent before she could finish giving the order "If you send over reinforcements you might spook Daniel and make him run away, the best chance we have at actually getting to him is with Mike and KITT"

"I know KITT's not fully repaired yet, a head to head confrontation will only end up bad for them"

"You don't know that, and you should know better too; You worked with both Mike and KITT before, you know the things they are capable of together and they have been in a similar situation to this in the past"

"What situation?"

"KARR, KITT hadn't even had an hour to begin setting his systems back up after being rebooted with a brand new core when that one guy deactivated him; both him and Mike were thrown into a full on fight with a killer AI and won despite having no advanced functions whatsoever. let them handle this, just stay in close contact with Sarah so that she can keep you updated on their situation"

Carrie took a step back as she considered the man's words, looking back to the agent next to her she simply dismissed him and set the others to stand guard around the area "You better be right about this"

"You worry too much"

"No, I just know what kind of things Daniel could've gotten his hands on and I do not like it"

Michael buried himself in the car's engine compartment once more as he kept on searching for the little black box, a small flashlight in one hand to help him in his search

"is there anything we can help you with?"

standing back up he turned off the lantern then "Yeah, actually. You got a screwdriver in any of your cars by any chance?"

Sarah Watched the live feed on KITT's status reports on her computer while the main screen was taken over the view of the battle from one of the cameras in the hangar, she tried pushing a scan over KITT's clone every now and then but the results were always inconclusive since the AI kept blocking her scans. A quick glance at Billy and Zoe only confirmed the fact that they were just as worried as she was with what the outcome of this fight would be.

So far the strategy KITT had come up with was working well for them, using a few shots from his smaller weapons he would coax the other AI into moving around to where he could land a good hit without being hit himself, it worked at first and at one point he had even managed to get a strong enough hit around the left front fender where he knew there were some systems close to the inner wall he might be able to get to with a good enough hit. this strategy of his did end quicker than he would've liked when the other AI pulled a quick turn on him and answered his shots with some of its own, noticing the distinct sound of the bullets impacting on the concrete and confirmed by a quick scan of the residual shells the AI noticed that these particular bullets had an explosive charge to them; this piece of knowledge forced him to back up and swerve around the open area to avoid as many hits as he could to keep his Nano-skin under as little stress as he could while shooting back and aiming at the spots he knew were not as protected as the rest of the shell.

Mike ended up leaving the driving to KITT as he focused on trying and get one of his simpler advanced weapons working by messing with the program while he too kept an eye on the Mustang's status and damage report. Yeah Mike was no expert programmer or scientist but he had learned a thing or two with time and because the code itself was practically complete all he had to do was find the proper way to link the set of code belonging to the actual functions of the weapon itself to the AI's main systems.

KITT took a small opening while the other Mustang changed weapons to drive directly towards them, landing a full speed hit on the same place he had before and finally managing to see a shower of sparks come out of the wheel well, the Nano-skin around the fender shimmering as it struggled to repair the dent that had now appeared on the car, confirming that this one hit had the result he had been expecting. the other AI stood in place for a couple seconds before taking off again towards KITT in a sudden burst of speed that he couldn't match in time to avoid the direct head on collision that left both cars pushing against each other in some sort of reverse tug of war; Mike, who had been working on finishing setting up the software that would bring back online another of the car's more advanced weapons online turned his attention completely to the outside as he jerked forwards upon receiving the direct hit from the oncoming car.

Pushing off all files on screen he took a hold of the steering wheel as the sound of both struggling engines drowned their surroundings.

As both AIs pushed against each other the strength that they applied grew, eventually KITT began to recede and allowed himself to be pushed as he detected his Nano-skin giving away to the strength, this fact did not go unnoticed by his driver.

"KITT what are you doing? we were keeping up against them just fine"

"If I continue to stand my ground we run the risk of damaging the structural integrity of the Nano-skin in that area"

Realizing this fact Mike leaned back down on his seat and set himself to simply watch. white tire smoke poured out from both cars as the modified Mustang was pushed across the hangar until he finally hit his rear end against a wall, his clone stopped pushing then and simply stood in place, in silence.

Mike sat up straight then, looking at the car in front of them at what was a near mirror image of KITT's scanner as it tracked back and forth slowly "What are they doing now?"

before the AI could provide any sort of answer the driver's side door on the Mustang opened, letting Daniel out.

"Mike Knight, come out now please, I just want to talk"

"KITT is he carrying any weapons?"

"Not that I can detect"

knowing that at least he wouldn't be greeted with a gun as soon as he climbed out of the car Mike went to open the door but it remained locked "KITT open the door"

"I cannot allow you to step outside the car, Daniel doesn't have any guns that I can detect but that doesn't mean he didn't give his AI orders to attack you as soon as you step outside"

"Would you rather wait and see if he attacks you again if I don't come out?"

"Well if I am completely honest then yes"

without giving Mike any chance to say anything after that KITT directed his voice to the outside speakers "If you want to speak to Mike then tell your AI to back away"

Daniel remained motionless for a couple seconds before turning to look at the Mustang, signaling for it to back off; it complied and reversed until it was a over car length away from KITT.

Mike went to pull on the door then but it remained locked

"Come on KITT, let me out"

"Before you go, take this" the car's glove box then opened a and a tray popped out, a gun and a loaded clip sitting in the middle. "If you are to get out then at least take this as means to defend yourself. the other AI will not be able to detect the gun and the bullets are non lethal"

Taking and loading the gun Mike stashed it behind him "Thanks KITT, keep your eyes open just in case"

The driver's side door on the modified Mustang rose up as it opened, after climbing out of the car Mike closed the door and walked around the front of the car where he remained standing, making sure to keep some distance between him and Daniel; taking a quick look he saw the Nano-skin still fixing itself on a few spots around where KITT had been pushed.

"I'm here now, what do you want?"

Michael dragged himself back out of the engine compartment of the Trans am after reconnecting the AI's core, walking around to the open driver's side door he dropped down on the seat and leaned down to reach some of the controls and cables under the steering wheel 'come on Kitt, I need ya buddy. time to wake up' reconnecting one of the main lines that powered the AI's core he was met by the distinct sounds of several systems starting and rebooting "It worked!"

outside Carrie took a few steps back away from the car as it rebooted, the ruby scanner flickering on and off several times before setting at a normal tracking speed.

Michael looked anxiously at the AI's voice modulator after all systems had rebooted, waiting for him to say something to let him know he was fine

"Michael?"

with a sigh of relief the man leaned back on the seat "Yeah, glad to see you're back Kitt"

"some of my systems are still rebooting, Michael how long has it been since we were attacked?"

"think it's been something over an hour, why?"

"oh dear…"

"why, what's wrong?"

"I figured a few things out as we were being chased, I need to get this information to Sarah so she can relate it Mike and KITT before anything bad happens...if it hasn't already"

"well send it over then"

"I can't, not until my system has fully rebooted"

"well how long is that going to take?"

"I'm afraid long enough to give Daniel some time to cause some damage. I have the information stored but I cannot send it"

Hearing the discussion Carrie came around to the open driver's side door "Maybe I can help, if I plug in a portable drive can you transfer the information there?"

"Yes, I think I should be able to simply transfer the information"

Michael then interrupted "what good would that do?"

"If I can get the information in the drive I can send it to Sarah, we have some good computers in the cars that should be able to manage a decent volume of data"

"Go ahead then, we can't waste much more time"

Running over to one of the FBI cars Carrie returned to the Trans am with a drive, giving it to Michael he plugged it into one of the AI's external ports and the AI instantly began the download. it took him a few minutes but eventually the files were copied to the drive, Carrie ran back to one of her cars and began sending them to the SSC.

Climbing back out of the car Michael looked back to the sky's dark clouds, tiny droplets of rain falling down every now and then "Hope Mike and KITT are doing alright"

"You don't think they can go against Daniel?"

"Well normally I wouldn't have a doubt...but now, considering KITT's current state I'm not so sure. how long until we can move again?"

"Rebooting process is now at 34% it will be some time until I can drive again"

"what if I drive you?"

"For security purposes I have a safe lock in my systems that prevents the car from moving while rebooting"

a drop of water then fell on Michael's head "you think you'll be done before the rain really starts?"

"I don't know, but I certainly hope so"

Sarah paced back and forth in the room as she watched the video feed on screen, she watched as Mike climbed down from the car and stopped in front of KITT while Daniel talked to him about something they would make sure to ask KITT about when they could. a small alert flashed in one of the smaller computers and she leaned down to see, it was an incoming file from Carrie with a small message reading 'Managed to bring the Two Thousand back, he got this information out of Daniel's AI and says it was important for you go get it'

quickly setting the decryptor on the protected file she was received by three separate scans of the AI's structure: the first one she opened had showed all the internal components as well as some of the base code for most of them, the second one was a simpler scan of the car's internal structure and the third one showed all weapons and and defense mechanisms

Focusing on the first one she studied the locations of some of the key components she knew the locations of from memory, she found it interesting that most of them had been kept in the same place so KITT probably knew where to aim his hits to have a higher chance at making some damage. she began going over whatever information the scan gave about each of the components and to her surprise nearly all of them were still incomplete; looking more into the specifics of other major systems that she could get her worry only increased. Now she understood that even though this was an AI that reached KITT's complexity it was nowhere near as advanced or perfected, this was just about the basics of an AI which meant that it had no restrictions or limitations as to what it could or couldn't do.

Switching scans to the one that had the weapons and defense mechanisms, the blueprint-like image on the file showed some of the weapons that KITT had as well along some others that she could not recognize, one in particular called her attention over the rest and it was stored in the compartment reserved for the specialized missiles on his driver's side. she looked over the silhouette of the weapon stored there before she realized what she was looking at

"Zoe...come here"

the tech got up from her seat and and walked over to where Sarah was standing in front of a computer "yeah?"

"look here, what do you see?"

the woman leaned closer to the computer as she looked at where Sarah was pointing "uhh...a missile?"

"look closer, you see those fins at the back? and doesn't that big nose cone with the smaller fins look similar to you?"

There were a few seconds of silence between both and by now Billy had stood up form his place and walked over to see what was all about, upon realizing what exactly she was looking at Zoe's face changed considerably "Oh crap…"

moving away from the computer and moving back to her place she began bringing up the files sent over by Carrie. As Zoe left Billy leaned in to have a look, letting out a few colorful expressions he returned back to his station as he attempted to contact KITT.

Mike remained standing in front of KITT with his arms crossed, half leaning against the car as he waited for Daniel to speak where he stood some distance away from him, constantly keeping an eye on the Mustang parked further away.

"What do you want Daniel?"

"I just want to talk, get to an agreement and avoid this fight"

"talk? after you've worked so much to get here and fight you now want to talk?"

"I offer you a deal"

"I think I'll pass on that one"

"you don't even know what I'm going to offer"

"Don't need to, last deal we made with you didn't turn to too well for us"

"Come on Knight, You know what I wanted to do. You are an ex army ranger, just imagine what tech like the three thousand's would do out there"

"it wouldn't do any good, there's more to it than just copying programming plus an infinite number of ways things could go south in ways that you don't understand"

"Well you can't get something working perfectly on the first try, AIs were not the exception as you know"

"and that is exactly why I can't allow you to go ahead with whatever plans you have"

"Oh but it's different now, I no longer have to worry about creating some loophole in the code" he half turned around and looked over to his AI "look at it, using the Three Thousand's code for a base all those risks of creating a rogue AI like KARR was back then is close to zero" he began slowly taking a few steps away, Mike mimicking his move "You've seen the horrors of war, the lives lost and the grief of friends and families, all of that could be avoided with tech like this out in the field if it's equipped properly; aircrafts, tanks, drones! just think of the possibilities"

Mike knew well the horrors of war, even if he couldn't remember everything what little he did remember was more than enough, Daniel was right, tech like KITT's out there would save lives and spare soldiers of the pain and grief. he glanced to KITT as he stood behind him, the scarlet red scanner tracking back and forth quickly; he looked over to the other AI standing further away, the scanner tracking painfully slow in an emotionless state he was unable to read.

Taking a few steps towards Daniel Mike uncrossed his arms, stopping leaning next to a large wooden crate " Well you are right, I know what it's like to be in the middle of a battle with nothing but gunshots, explosions and jet engines flying overhead...but I also know that your plan would be a double edge sword out there, you can never know how an AI is going to react or behave with a hundred percent certainty. I still cannot let you do this"

KITT watched the conversation as he took this precious time to fix as much of himself as he could, his scanners never left the other AI while he kept a vigilant eye over Daniel's each and every move

"KITT come in"

shifting part of his attention to his communications he opened the feed "Yes Billy?"

"We have a problem, you need to get Mike back inside you fast"

"Did you figure something out?"

"not us, the Two thousand's back on and he managed to get thins information, I'll send it to you but first you need to get Mike"

ending the connection there the AI wondered what could be so bad that it had Billy in such a panic, he didn't have to wait long to find out though since the moment Mike had refused Daniel's offer the man simply apologized before making a light gesture with his hand that he almost missed. Switching his attention back to the AI his sensors spiked upon detecting activity.

one of the side panels of the car slid open and out came a a missile launcher, a black and gold missile mounted and ready to be launched in his direction.

Switching looks between the other AI and KITT Mike noticed how the scanner on the latter was now moving quicker as the AI analyzed the situation. in his own mind he tried doing the same but ended up just realizing how big a mistake it had been to get out of the car, he was now separated from KITT and Daniel could use him to get to him. he was out of options now.

"I don't want to hurt you Knight, but I'll do it if I have to"

the man turned back around to face the FBI coordinator "come on, the only reason you haven't fired that missile is because the shockwave would probably hit us as well"

"well you're half right there, but really there are a few things that I would like to get out of that AI of yours before getting rid of it"

"What could you possibly need? you practically built that other AI with his codes and components"

"true, there is one thing though that you took when stealing the car's core. you see, because of you going out and calling the Knight Industries lady friend of yours you just made my job a lot harder, I need a perfect AI to be even able to return to the FBI and at least make them consider my proposal; my car is far from perfect despite having such great technological advancements and a few improvements my team made to it and the key to fix all my problems is inside that" as he finished Daniel pointed at KITT, Mike wondered what exactly he was looking after but he did not bother asking, he cared more about leaving this conflict in one piece and preferably with KITT.

"Well if you want something that's inside of him then you cannot use that missile you have there ready to fire"

"oh but I can, I'm sure you recognize it right?"

"had one of those shot straight at us, of course I know what it is"

"that was a rhetorical question, you think you know what it is but really you have no idea"

"What? that's a Knight Industries missile, no other thing that small has those fins near the tip"

"that missile was at one point your regular Knight industries missile but I took it in my own hands to modify it and...improve it"

"by making it do what exactly?"

"Well obviously I'm not going to go into details like that with you but I will say this, you better do your damn best to avoid getting hit by it"

As Daniel turned around and had his back to him KITT took the chance to shoot a small disruptive missile, the thing was just a few inches long and had a near imperceptible sound when fired. it hit the other AI head on before it could react and sent a shockwave of electricity coursing through the car; upon looking at what was happening Mike turned to run back towards Daniel as he headed straight back to his AI, without wasting precious seconds KITT took off after Mike then, before he could even get close Mike half turned around to look at him as he continued to run towards Daniel "I'll keep Daniel from getting close to it KITT, there is no human life in danger now if you attack so go!"

the Mustang wanted to argue back but the logic presented to him was perfect, modifying his course he began driving towards the Mustang, realizing then that the one place he could be safe from that missile was right next to it.

Seeing KITT take off and slam against the side of the other AI while it still struggled to regain its functions he all but jumped on top of Daniel, knocking him to the floor with all his weight. the older man kept his gaze focused on the Mustang as he watched the three thousand use that extra power he had in the attack mode to push the car away from him. attempting a few hits with his elbows against the man that had him currently pinned to the ground he eventually landed one that made him lose his grip on him enough to push him off and let him stand up; continuing to try and run he was stopped again by the sound of a gun being loaded.

Slowly turning around to face the man behind him he crossed his arms.

"What, you're gonna kill me?"

"Believe me, I'd love to after all that you've done but there are people who want to have a lengthy and rather unpleasant chat with you back at the FBI. and I think it would be even better to see you rotting in jail...so no, I won't kill you-" adjusting his aim to be slightly lower he continued "-but I will shoot you if I have to" this being said Daniel's face paled considerably as he took a step back and uncrossed his arms "Now, tell your car to power down"

"no can do Knight, there's no turning back now. for this to finish only one of those AIs will remain"

Mike turned to look at the two cars then as a crash of metal on metal called his attention, the clone had recovered from KITT's disruptive device and freed itself from him grip, pushing KITT off of his side where the Knight Industries missile was still deployed and ready to launch. despite having better maneuverability in his attack mode KITT was hit on his rear left fender with enough force to spin him out with his carried momentum. unable to move in time from another incoming hit he tried to dissuade the Mustang by shooting directly at it as it drove straight for him; a few of the bullets managed to penetrate in the area that had been damaged by KITT's impact earlier but most of them bounced off of the shell as the mustang continued to drive as if nothing were happening.

only able to brace for impact KITT locked his wheels in preparation. The head on collision sent a distinctive clang throughout the large open area of the hangar, from his place Mike saw the blue wave of the Nano-skin spread through both cars at the moment of impact, the Mustang kept it's shape fairly well but even from afar Mike saw how several areas around the front end of KITT still had the blue glow as the skin tried to keep its shape while repairing the damage caused from the impact.

Turning to look back at Daniel he took a few steps forward, the man in front of him mimicking his steps backwards "Shut it down Daniel, now!"

"You know the Three thousand won't make it through this don't you? not in this weakened state that it's in, not even whatever upgrades you get with that attack mode. So tell me, how does it feel to realize that all your work recovering that AI was only good to see it fall to its own flaws?"

Without another word Mike simply released a shot on the man's arm, making him instinctively drop to the ground while he clutched the area where the bullet had hit "Shut it down Daniel, fuck the FBI I'll kill you right now if that's what it takes to finish this"

switching his glance between his injured arm and the man standing in front of him he spoke through the pain "What the hell is wrong with you?!"

The ex-army ranger rose the gun again "Last chance"

Still clutching his arm the man stood back up as he spoke in a slightly panicked voice "I can't, there's no stopping this. that AI was programmed to fulfill each and every task it was given and not even I can stop that"

"You're the driver, if deep down there the core program is somewhat similar to KITT's it'll listen and stop"

"it won't, we changed just about all of the core programming and removed that"

holstering his gun Mike grabbed the man by the neck of his shirt "What the hell were you and your techs thinking?! are you that big of an idiot?"

"The human element is the weakest part in team with an AI, by removing the susceptibility of changing or neglecting orders we eliminated the risk of having an unsuccessful mission as long as the AI is still active"

Pushing the man off hard enough to make him stumble backwards and fall Mike ran a hand through his hair "Yeah, great job. Congratulations, you just made an AI that's even more broken and dangerous than KARR was..."

KITT managed to stand his ground after the initial impact, the blow had definitely shook up some of his internal components but at least he was relieved to know that it had also taken its toll on the opposing AI; on the moment of impact more sparks flew out of its wheel well where he had impacted before and damaged a few of the sensitive components underneath, he watched as the area round that point of impact had now remained unable to repair itself and now scratches and a few bullet holes marked the previously perfect finish. feeling the pressure against his front end continuing to increase he had to once again begin to fall back to spare his already overworked Nano-skin from the load. The sound of a gunshot called his attention as well as the other AI's seeing as the pressure lessened for a few seconds, Daniel was now on the floor clutching his arm and Mike still had a gun pointed in his direction; to his surprise the Mustang then resumed applying more pressure against him rather than going to the aid of it's driver which it made him wonder just how much had they messed with his core programming?

Finally turning to the only other thing he could think off to break the constant push and pull he decided to start using some of the better ammo Sarah had given him, staring with the explosive bullets he loaded them into his hood-mounted gun and began shooting at literal point blank range. after the first few hits the other AI must've realized that these bullets caused more damage because sure enough it began backing off; rather than giving the other AI or himself time to recover KITT kept pushing forwards and continuing the stream of bullets, the Knight Industries missile was still deployed and he feared that if he gave it as much as a second the fight would be over.

fully knowing that his supply of these modified ammo was not infinite he took as much advantage of it as he could and began targeting some of the key areas where he knew the armored panels were weaker. after a few lucky shots he began seeing that the Nano-skin began to take longer to repair those areas and as his bullets ran out a few of them managed to get past the skin and penetrate the armored metal, now he was facing another problem: he only had regular bullets and a few missiles left, thanks to the information Sarah passed over to him from the Two thousand though he was able to at least estimate how much the other car had left though to his bad luck it seemed like it still was way more than what he had.

In the couple seconds that it took the other AI to recover he quickly went through the scans he had, unsurprisingly the AI was barely complete and simple minded by what he could tell but what it lacked in complexity it made up on in weaponry; he wondered though, now that he saw the scans, how did his EMP from earlier only managed to deactivate the active camouflage and not the whole computer?

He didn't have to look too deep into the more technical side of things to see because as he analyzed the scan a little bit more in depth he noticed how the main computer itself was separated into two sections, one of them being shielded by a two inch thick lead box that prevented anything to get in or out if it weren't for the direct connections that ran out through a side of the box and into the secondary computer.

he had to admit that it was a clever way to prevent an EMP from fully shutting down the computer but at the same time it presented another issue, this one being the fact that because the computer was split in two it didn't have the same processing power it would if it were whole, a side the fact that processing times would be longer than his own, for a split second even, but in this particular situation that kind time could grow exponentially to even half a second between processing times, decision making and reaction times; enough to give him an advantage that he would gladly take.

As he slowly drove around the Mustang in preparation for whatever move it would try next KITT took the time to try his luck pushing out a scan around it, to his luck the damage he inflicted was enough to disable a few of the superficial defenses. As he drove around the front end of the other car he saw the scanner continuing to track back and forth at the same slow pace, not even giving him a hit to what the AI was doing inside. without any warning the Mustang deployed a different missile launcher from its side and shot.

KITT hat at most a second to react but he knew that it wouldn't be enough to get out of the way so instead he focused all of his Nano-skin in the one area around where he detected the impact point was going to be and braced for impact.

Mike had contacted Sarah a few minutes ago to tell her to speak to Carrie and bring a team over to take Daniel away, in the meantime he kept the man on the floor at gunpoint just in case anything did happen. he watched as KITT managed to break from the other AI's grip using the modified bullets, as he approached the Mustang he couldn't help but have a bad feeling deep down in hi gut, it was in these moment that he regretted not telling Sarah to set the earpiece back with the new system; the complains against himself soon stopped though with the sound of some sort of system deploying, from his angle he really couldn't tell what had happened but a fraction of a second later he half duck down instinctively at the sound of a missile being launched, soon followed by an explosion.

The man turned his head back towards where both cars had been and saw KITT just as he landed back on all four wheels with the sound of groaning metal, his right side still shimmering with hues of blue as the Nano-skin worked overtime to repair the damage. the driver guessed the AI had diverted most if not all of his Nanobots over to the area of impact since his left side now had scratches and dents created from tumbling several times after being hit by the missile, his rear wing was slightly slanted to a side and the blue light that normally shone under the car in this mode was flickering..

it took the AI a good couple second to recover himself after the impact; part of him believed as soon as he heard the sound of a missile launching that it had been the Knight Industries prototype but after he was done tumbling through the hangar he realized the damage he had received was too low for it to had been that.

He knew the impact was coming the millisecond he identified the sound of the launcher and prepared as best as he could to take the blow but that didn't make the actual hit any less damaging or uncomfortable. he felt the heat of the overloaded nano bots trying to repair his damaged side as cracked glass from his side window and scorch marks from the heat of the explosion itself shimmered with various shades of blue as they slowly got repaired.

Half turning to be face to face with the opposing AI once again he noticed the prototype missile was pointed in his direction and not doubt ready to fire, a thousand scenarios played out in his processor and in most of them it didn't end well for him; his systems were damaged and that missile had taken a bit of a toll on his left rear suspension.

As he remained at a standstill for what seemed like an eternity he tentatively pushed out a scan over the other AI he was surprised to see an actual result come back, on the upside there were a few systems offline and some others already damaged, on the downside he was in much worse condition; though considering that he had started this fight at a disadvantage but still managed to last as long as he had with the amount of damage making things harder from early on was an accomplishment in itself in his eyes.

Performing a quick self scan he only confirmed what he already knew; by diverting all of his nanobots to the area of direct impact he had left the rest of his body unprotected as he tumbled away after being hit which in consequence had damaged other components from the force of his own weight crashing against the ground. The structural integrity of his frame had decreased and that was something that even if he had his Nano-bots working properly he would nit be able to fix, no chance to even try now with the Nano-skin in this weakened state.

He knew the risk of diverting resources the way he had but one doesn't need to be a genius to tell that the odds were better against tumbling on the ground instead of taking a direct hit from a missile at point blank range; his scan had also revealed that the strength of the explosion had also caused some collateral damage to the other AI due to the closeness of the detonation. While the damage had not been as much as he would've liked it was enough to give him a few seconds to recover before he had to get moving again, he diverted some extra energy on the overworked Nano-skin to speed up some of the repairs but after that big hit the nanobots had reached a point in which they were unable to repair fully some of the more prominent damage; in the end KITT redirected his Nano-skin back to once again cover him fully and leaving whatever damage that couldn't be repaired as it was before both cars started circling each other again.

As Mike watched helplessly from his place he saw how some of the damage on KITT remained even after he began moving again, he feared that the hit with the missile had damaged the already weakened shell. he was distracted from his worrying thoughts by nearby footsteps then, turning around she came face to face with Zoe as she approached with a first aid kit.

"What are you doing out here?"

"Came to patch up Daniel, Sarah's orders"

"Why?"

"well you put a bullet in his arm, he's bleeding"

"I know that, I mean why would Sarah help him?"

"FBI still wants him, and while she did not approve of you shooting him Billy and I do"

Looking down at Daniel as he remained sitting on the floor he motioned towards him with his head while taking a step back to give her some space. in his eyes that man did not deserve to get any help from them after what he had done but if they were Sarah's orders then he really couldn't fight it.

He watched absentmindedly as the cars circled each other in the distance, occasionally one of them lunging for the other in an attempt to land a hit, resulting in a short chase that ended after one of them had been hit before circling each other again in a cycle.

"Do you guys have any news from the Two Thousand yet?"

Without looking away from her work as Daniel reluctantly took the help he got she answered "Him and your dad are coming back with a few FBI vans and Carrie, they should be here within the hour and hopefully have some reinforcements to help KITT seeing how things are going"

just then another clang of metal against metal resonated in the hangar. Mike turned his look back towards the cars and noticed KITT was now pushing the Mustang from his side where a few scratches now appeared, at least KITT was making some damage, though judging by how he looked himself he was still more damaged than it was.

As Zoe finished she stood up and began walking away, she was stopped mid-step by Mike as he handled her his gun "Stay here with Daniel, I'm going back to KITT"

dropping the first aid kit she held Mike before he could walk away"Wait, you can't just go back to him mid-fight"

"I'm not standing here doing nothing while I could be over there with him, we just barely got him back and there are a few things that his systems still can't do on their own but I can manually from the inside. if I can help him in any way I will"

"And how do you plan on getting back inside him? they're both either chasing each other down, shooting one another or very damn near blowing themselves up" a well timed explosion made them both turn to look at the cars as the smoke from an explosion cleared up around the clone from being hit by one of KITT's missiles on the side in an area that he knew had some of the more sensitive equipment underneath; the mirror image of KITT's scanner flickering a few times from the impact as the system regained itself; another scorch mark staying plastered on the side of Shelby as part of the repairing system from the Nano-skin began failing.

Mike understood why Zoe was reluctant to let him go, it was a dangerous sprint towards the cars but he had to try, he took one more step forwards but stopped again after realizing something: even if he did manage to get close enough for KITt to notice him over the chaos he was dealing with out here and inside his own system his own code would cause his full attention on him since he would be putting himself in danger by approaching. Now this might not really look like a problem but the moment it was put in perspective and he thought about possible scenarios he really came to realize that for those precious moments that KITT would waste focusing on him and quite literally possibly turning his back on the other AI the clone could very easily take that chance to fire the possibly lethal Knight Industries missile.

While that particular scenario becoming a reality was just pure speculation on his part there was no way he would risk the outcome of this fight to help his own feeling of being useless.

Knowing that there really was nothing he could to to help KITT without putting himself in harm's way the ex-army ranger took a couple steps back and took the gun back from Zoe

"Get back inside with the others, see if there is anything you guys can do to help KITT from there, I'll wait here until Carrie and the others arrive to take care of Daniel"

"we're already doing everything we can from down there, whatever we can do to help him we're already doing, of that you can be sure"

After chasing each other for what now was the third time in the span of about ten minutes KITT managed to slide around just tight enough to get out of the other AI's path as he was being chased. some of the debris that now covered certain areas of the floor around where they had been fighting found its way up and around one of the Mustang's wheels, causing it to slightly slide to a side and lose control long enough for KITT to get some leverage and take advantage of his lower front end to slide part of his front splitter underneath the car; boosting his front suspension as much as he could and adding a push up from his front boosters he managed to rise the car high enough so that combined with the speed both of them were moving at his clone ended up sliding on its side for some distance before rolling onto the roof and then continuing to roll until it landed back in all four wheels with the sound of crunching metal.

A quick scan revealed that he had at least a good minute to recover himself, he noticed then where Mike stood some distance away with Daniel sitting on the floor next to him. taking advantage of this short time he had to take a break from the constant beating and running he drove over to where the ex-army ranger stood.

Mike kept switching his glance between KITT and the other AI as it remained in the place it had landed after the flip, scanner flickering; his partner rolled to a stop directly in front of him then, the engine now had some low hissing sound to it in consequence to one of the stronger hits he had received. letting his guard down from the man next to him he kneeled down in front of the car and laid a hand on the edge of the front bumper for support, the normally soft surface was now more on the rougher side as some of the top coating on the Nano-skin had cracked under the pressure of the constant pushing and pulling. it only took him a quick glance around the front of the car to tell that things were a lot rougher than they seemed from a distance if all the scratches and dents scattered around the car were anything to go by; the crooked rear wing and cracks around some of the specialized windows were also a testament of the strength of the hits he had to endure.

"How are you holding up KITT?"

"I've had to divert resources from other systems in more than one occasion but I am taking this short time to recover from the constant stress on my systems"

"Just hang in there a little longer, Carrie is coming back now with a squad and the Two Thousand" Mike stood back up then and looked straight at the scarlet red scanner as it tracked back and forth, turning back to look to where the other AI had been before his heart skipped a beat when he did not see the other car still there; a loud clang behind KITT was all he needed to realize where it had gone and at that same time as if someone had flipped a switch the three thousand's scanner instantly picked up it's pace and the engine revved as it tried to stop himself from being dragged by the other AI.

Mike began taking a few steps forwards again to reach the car but was stopped by the AI's calm voice "Mike no, stay back, please..."

he looked straight at the car's scanner and was tempted to ignore him but something about the way he had said it made him stop cold as the car began getting pulled away from him. was it the seriousness of the situation that had caused those words to sink in so much? no, that was not it, he played that sentence several more times in his head and realized then that it hadn't been a product of his tired mind: there had been a pleading tone from the AI when he asked him, pleaded him not to go with him.

This piece of knowledge only served to edge him more than he already was, in any other circumstances he knew KITT would even help him stay by his side but right now he had asked him to stay back, the car knew something was going to happen that he didn't and because he wanted him to be far from him he could only guess the worse.

KITT half cursed his own distraction as it had allowed the Mustang to slip behind him and get a hold of his rear wing using the grappling hook, he was slowly being pulled back with the little resistance he was giving but part of him found allowing himself to get pulled back the only way to safely get away from Mike.

He had a plan now, it wasn't the best of plans mind you and one he was not entirely happy with the possible outcomes but that was the only plan he had and unless something he hadn't accounted for happened in the span of the next ten minutes he would have to run with it.

His plan was the following: he would have to find a way to make the other AI show the Knight Industries missile again, once that was done he would have to try and get his grappling hook stuck on the launching mechanism and pull away the AI, by using the launcher an an anchor point for his grappling hook it would not allow the car Mustang to launch it or aim it properly. He hoped that by the time this was done the Two Thousand and the other FBI agents were already here so that with their help he could take down the AI without any further trouble.

Funny enough the very situation he found himself in gave him the perfect idea as to what to do to complete the first part of his plan, as risky as it was he would allow himself to be used as bait, if he intentionally showed a sign of weakness or two as he was being pushed then he hoped that would coax his clone into wanting to just finish things off by shooting the missile at him, making it deploy the thing and allowing him to continue with the rest of his plan.

Seeing he was at a safe enough distance from Mike by now he began putting some more strength into his pull on the hook until he managed to start pulling on the other AI; he was glad that his attack mode provided him with this boost of extra power that allowed him to have some advantage over his clone but considering how he had been struggling after the last few hits in comparison to the other Mustang part of him believed that his one advantage might just put him at even with it rather than give him an actual advantage.

After a good little while of reaching a relative standstill on the constant push and pull KITT noticed how the other car was slowly releasing more of the cable on the grappling hook and building up some distance between them. a part of him deep down froze for a second in realization of what was happening yet at the same time another part of him was just waiting and ready to act once things began heating up, guess he wouldn't need to intentionally bait the other AI into wanting to use the missile then.

KITT waited for the slightest change in the other AI's movement, something a small as the switching of panels would trigger his reaction; there was only one way for sure to get free from this grip he found himself in and. He didn't like it and would be particularly uncomfortable for him but as long as it helped him go on with his plan it was something he was willing to go through, just for that chance at getting this over with before it got any worse.

He stopped applying much strength on his pull for a second as he made some last few calculations, the grappling hook was firmly stuck on his wing and now he was just figuring out the best way he could approach the situation if the first part of his plan went as expected.

Once his calculations were done and with the most likely case scenario in mind he took advantage of the other IA's continuous strength pulling on the grappling hook to get a burst of speed of his own; angling back his boosters to provide an even stronger initial jump of speed he pulled on the other IA for a second upon releasing his boost before making a last second adjustment. there was a sound of groaning metal as he felt the pressure from the grappling hook on his rear wing increase exponentially as it began giving under the pull.

Mike turned away from the struggling cars as he received a message from Sarah on his phone saying that Carrie and his father were close now and ready to provide some assistance, he began typing up a response before the dry sound of ripping metal made him instantly look back to the fight, there was tire smoke surrounding the cars as both spun out after they were finally separated; once the sound of their engines had died down the man heard the sound of metal clanging on the concrete ground but the smoke hanging around the cars still kept him from clearly seeing what had happened.

the lack of any real wind inside the hangar kept the smoke around for a couple seconds before it dispersed enough to allow him to see both cars facing each other some distance apart, between them on the ground was a long piece of black metal he couldn't recognize, he guessed that's what made the clanging sound from before. he looked back at KITT as he stood facing the other Mustang and he couldn't help but notice something different; he was half ashamed that it had taken him a full few seconds to realize that his rear wing was gone and thinking back to the fact that that's where the grappling hook was stuck on he could only guess what had happened, connecting the dots he also guessed that the piece of metal on the ground between the cars was the torn and bent wing that had once stood tall on KITT's rear end.

Feeling the uncomfortable numbness around his rear end that came with the loss of his wing the AI shook off that thought and focused on his next task, just as he had predicted the opposing AI had taken the loss of his wing as a sign that he was weaker than he actually was and seeing the opportunity it deployed the side rocket launcher with the Knight Industries missile set and ready to fire; kicking himself into gear KITT slid around the Mustang and shot his own grappling hook towards the slight opening that deployed the missile launcher, effectively not only getting a hold of the other car in an angle that it would be unable to properly aim at him but also prevent it from retracting the launcher.

So far his plan was working the way he had predicted it would, all he needed to do now was take advantage of his extra grip and try and pull the car further away from where Mike and Daniel were and towards the half open hangar doors.

As the AI made slow progress pulling the struggling Mustang he detected a cluster of cars approaching the edge of the SSC's perimeter, knowing that Carrie and the two thousand had been on their way for a while he assumed this was them and immediately sent a message directly to Kitt, who was at the front of the convoy.

Kitt turned out of the street and into the large paved area that was out the front end of the large hangar, there was an open gap in between the doors that was big enough for them to get through so he adjusted himself to get there as he picked up speed; Michael kept his hands on the steering wheel more out of being anxious than anything as he too was both eager and scared to see what they would find inside.

Getting a ping from one of his internal communication lines he turned part of his attention to it and read the message before straight out breaking to a full stop in such a rush that the three FBI cars following him had to swerve around him as they also struggled to bring their momentum down to a full stop without the AI's specialized systems and equipment that allowed him to stop in a shorter distance from a higher speed.

"Kitt what the hell was that?!"

"I'm sorry Michael but I just received a message from KITT and this were his instructions"

"What exactly did he tell you?"

before the car could begin explaining Carrie knocked on the driver's side window, Michael rolled it down then and looked in front of him to the three cars as they laid in a disorganized fashion, two of them seemed to have slightly bumped into each other judging by the small dents he could see from his place

"So, care to explain why you suddenly stopped like that?"

rising up his hands in defense Michael spoke "Hey don't look at me, I had nothing to do with it"

the FBI agent then turned her attention over to the center console "Kitt?"

"Yes, again, I apologize but I received instructions from KITT and if I had waited to tell you or Michael about it it could've been too late considering the speed at which we were driving"

"instructions? what did he tell you?"

"Well, as we speak KITT is managing to drag Daniel's AI outside the hangar, he has been damaged and some of his larger weapons have been jammed by the impacts to his sides and front so he cannot finish this battle on his own, he has requested from us to stay put just outside the hangar doors at an angle in which we wouldn't be seen from the inside so that once he has managed to drag the AI out we can help in at least rendering it immobile"

"But wouldn't it know we are there? I mean it does have KITT's advanced systems, surely it can detect we are here somehow"

"Well you see according to what KITT told me he has been able to deal quite the damage himself and because of his clone's incomplete state he was able to do a more successful scan than what I could when we first encountered it, he knows that the systems it could've used for long range scans and surveillance are damaged or just completely inoperative. to put it in more simple terms it cannot detect or see anything other than that in its primal visual range, that being anything that is directly around it that is visible"

"So as long as we stay out of visual range we should be good then?"

"Yes, that is why we must follow KITT's instructions, especially if we want this to be over as soon as possible and to avoid any further injury to KITT"

"well, if that's the case I'll update my people on this, lead the way Kitt, take us to our waiting position in a way that you know we won't be visible from anyone on the inside"

KITT noticed through his scans of the area immediately outside the hangar how the group of cars stopped nearly as soon as he had sent the message to the Knight two thousand, they remained still for a little while before moving again, slower and at an angle rather than straight out front. relieved that they were following his instructions he sent some more of his power down to his rear wheels to continue pulling, the other AI was doing a decent job at slowing his progress but since he was pulling it at an awkward angle it was hard to get any forward traction to counter his pull; even though his plan was still going as expected he wasn't out of the woods just yet, there was some distance still to get to the outside and some of the possible scenarios he had calculated were still a chance depending on what exactly happened in the next following minutes.

The most likely alternate scenario considering the effort he was putting and the stress to some of his more damaged areas was that of something actually breaking down inside of him that should cause him to either stop or lose enough power to allow his clone to get enough traction to even out or outweigh his pull. this very situation was why he was making sure to keep a very close eye in all of his internal system's statistics and looking out for any warnings in case they popped up.

Mike watched from his place how KITT struggled to pull the Mustang as it stood sideways in comparison to him, the cavernous space echoing the sound of both fighting engines as they slipped further and further away from them towards the entrance to the hangar, wondering what his partner's plan was he crossed his arms as he occasionally turned to look at Daniel as he now sat on top of a box next to him; there was a thoughtful, serious expression plastered on his face.

The man turned back to the scene in front of him after glancing at his phone when receiving a message, it was from the Knight two thousand saying they were just outside the hangar doors and waiting. So at least he now knew what KITT was planning to do, he just still didn't know what would make KITT tell them to wait outside rather than letting them come in and stop this fight now.

Daniel absentmindedly looked at the two cars struggle, by what he could tell the Knight Three Thousand had made quite the plan to get out of the situation he had been stuck on at the cost of losing it's rear wing; smart move in his opinion especially considering how it used the confusion after that to get in position to shoot his grappling hook on the launcher containing the Knight Industries missile and jamming the mechanism.

He closed his eyes as he practically saw his plan fall apart and the winning slip through his fingers, after this it would most likely be a long time in a cell considering all the things he had done to get to this point. He had hoped that after beating the Three Thousand and proving that he was right and that his model was better that the other agencies would fall back behind him and support him again but seeing this turn of events that scenario was far from playing out.

Looking back up front to the two cars he noticed the Knight Three Thousand's scanner tracking back and forth quickly while his AI's scanner was still at the same pace he had seen it at the first time it was turned on. with a sigh he stood up as he kept his gaze fixed on both cars

"KITT!" upon calling out there was clear confusion in the air as both AI's half stopped in confusion while Mike just looked at him with that same emotion. saying it loud enough so that he was sure the AI would hear him he continued then "Initiate protocol Papa bravo zero five seven"

KITT stopped in confusion after Daniel had called his name, the other AI had stopped as well and he wasn't sure why; he heard Daniel say some sort of protocol but after searching his database he wasn't able to come up with anything yet before he could look into that protocol further he was abruptly pulled from his thoughts by his clone taking advantage of his confusion and pulling on him as he began driving towards where Daniel and Mike were standing.

The damage he had taken together with the fact that he didn't start pulling before the Mustang did made it so they were both at a stand still and slowly KITT could feel that he was starting to get pulled.

As he struggled to stop himself from getting dragged he switched his attention over to where Mike was standing, both men were on the floor and Mike was just managing to get Daniel off of him but as soon as he tried standing up the ex-FBI coordinator was back on him which ended in an endless struggle between the two. KITT noticed then that despite the rope on his grappling hook being as tense as possible trying to keep the two cars attached to each other there were certain vibrations coming through it now, looking over to where the hook was stuck in the launching mechanism for the Knight Industries missile he saw the thing slightly jiggle and attempt to turn more over towards where the car was looking at; he realized then what was happening.

At first he thought that the protocol Daniel had mentioned before was something in his own systems but he had found nothing, he had called his name but after no finding said protocol he simply diverted to the conclusion that he hadn't changed the other AI's name and the protocol was directed towards it. again he found himself trying to figure out what had triggered the sudden attitude change up until now but taking in the bigger picture around him he was able to reach a simple conclusion: Seeing him dragging the beat and battered Mustang that was his AI towards the open hangar doors made Daniel realize that despite what he had thought or planned he was not going to be the winner of this fight, whatever he had hoped would happen afterwards had they not been able to defeat him wouldn't happen and he would have to face whatever consequences the FBI would put on him for what he had done. being the smart man that he was Daniel had set up an emergency protocol in case his main plan failed like it was right now and KITT could guess that this alternate plan was sending the AI after Mike, rather than himself simply because a man was a simpler target than another AI in whatever situation.

Daniel was willing to sacrifice himself if he could manage to give his AI a chance at killing Mike which would be the ultimate revenge upon him, KITT guessed that because they were still some distance away the Mustang would use a long range weapon to carry this last task out but a quick scan from his part showed that the only working long range weapon that was left was the Knight Industries missile, combined with the jiggle and constant struggle to aim it over towards the front of the car from it's slightly sideways position he knew that he was the only one preventing that missile from launching and hurting Mike and Daniel.

As confused as Mike was when Daniel's AI started suddenly heading for them he had no time to react at all when suddenly Daniel all but tackled him to the ground, even with his injury he was putting up quite the fight on the ground and he struggled to pry him off of him and over to a side so that he could stand up, as soon as he had been able to get a stable footing though the man threw himself back at him with his full weight and the ex-army ranger struggled to stay upright, taking half a step back he pushed himself forwards and used his own momentum to pushed Daniel to the floor, landing on top of him to make sure that he wouldn't be jumping back at him again. Before Mike could even finish processing how quickly this situation had escalated he saw Daniel half laughing over the sound of the car's engines resonating in the hangar "you lose Knight, the both of you…"

With a sudden sinking feeling in the pit of his stomach Mike turned his head to look at the two cars struggling some distance away, the launcher with the loaded Knight Industries missile was pointing in their direction and by the light smoke coming from the back end of it he knew that it was getting ready to be launched; switching his attention to KITT trying to pull his clone away or stop him in some way he looked at the scarlet red scanner as it tracked back and forth over the car's grille, as he looked at his partner he couldn't help but get that bad feeling deep down inside of him.

For the following couple seconds Mike felt as if time had slowed down, he couldn't hear anything clearly anymore and his eyes were focused fully on KITT, out of the corner of his eye he spotted something at the edge of the open hangar doors that led to the outside but he paid no real attention to it as he noticed a compartment on KITT's side slide open, one of his smaller guns popped out, what made his heart drop was that the thing wasn't aimed at the rogue AI in general, it was pointing straight at the missile as it was just about to be launched; he wanted to jump back up and stop the AI, scream at him to not shoot but in the eternal span of what really only were a couple seconds he felt as if he was frozen in place and his lungs couldn't draw enough air to emit any sort of sound. KITT shot a single bullet at the perfect angle so that it hit the missile on just the right spot, both car's engines were drowned by the sound of the explosion that came right after, both men's distance from the cars being close enough so that the shockwave threw them back against the larger boxes that laid behind them, Mike ended up landing on his side and as he laid on the cool concrete he could feel the heat of the fire that had caught some of the nearby wooden boxes as he stared at the blurry image of an indistinguishable mess of fire burning over the mess that both cars had turned into before his vision was clouded completely by darkness.


	11. Chapter 11

**New chapter up, thanks so much to those that took the time to leave reviews on each chapter, you guys are the best.**

From their place in the SSC's main chamber even Sarah and the others felt the explosion, if lightly, but the fact that they had considering how far down from it they were was testament to the strength it had. the nearest camera to the explosion was out and the three techs couldn't do more other than stare in silence at the view from the remaining two cameras; through the partly open hangar doors a small group of cars drove in and managed to break their fixated looks on the screen.

dropping the tablet she had been carrying back on the table Saran stood up from her place "Come on guys, we gotta go check on Mike, hope he's fine after being that close to the blast"

after exchanging looks Billy and Zoe quickly got up from their chairs and followed Sarah out the entry tunnel since it was the quickest way to get back out. As she made the walk up the ramp Sarah's mind was racing; was Mike okay? was Daniel?...and what about KITT? what if the other AI had somehow managed to stand the explosion and was still active?

apparently her inner worries were somehow reflected to the outside because just then Zoe reached out and put a hand on her shoulder in support. Well at least there was one thing she could be sure about: whatever was out there they would face and overcome together.

Kitt had been keeping a watchful eye on his successor as he waited right outside the hangar doors, evidently something had happened because all of a sudden both cars stopped for a second before the rogue AI began pulling KITT, this time angling itself to be facing where Mike and Daniel were standing. something was happening and he cursed himself for not being able to get all the information to understand what had caused this change.

Mike and Daniel were struggling with each other on the ground for a couple seconds before Mike simply stopped moving and just stared at KITT; in the span of just over a second KITT had deployed a gun of his own and shot the exposed missile on the side launcher of the other AI, causing a large explosion that engulfed both cars as it threw them in different directions with enough strength to snap the cable on the grappling hook that was keeping them together.

Half peeking his front end through the doors the Trans am was able to feel the shockwave hit him as well as the surrounding cars with enough strength to make him have to put some strength against the ground to avoid being moved by it. After that wave was over he drove back in and through the hangar towards where Mike was still motionless on the ground, as he drove through the hangar though he couldn't help but look around the remaining flames at the both remaining shells of the cars that had been battling; one was slightly bigger than the other and he guessed that it must've been KITT's, he looked like the explosion had affected him less in comparison to the half torn car that was some distance away leaning against some debris partly on its side but still even to the naked eye he didn't look good.

The Trans am stopped by where Mike was and opened the door to let his driver exit, the man hurred to where his son was and all but fell to the ground next to him, checking him over as he did so "Kitt can you tell if he has any bad injuries?"

after a few seconds of silence as the AI scanned the younger man he spoke "No severe injuries are detected, I assume that he was just knocked out by his fall and the strength of the shockwave hitting him at such close range"

with a relieved sigh Michael stood back up, looking around he saw Daniel's motionless moby just some distance away "Come here Kitt, I'll leave Mike on your seat so you can keep an eye on him while I check over Daniel " the AI complied then and stopped right next to Mike, opening his passenger's side door as Michael dragged his son up on the seat with some effort before closing the door and putting a hand to support his back as he straightened back up "man I'm too old for this"

Before Michael could even start to make his way over to Daniel the FBI cars that had followed him before stopped around the general area of the explosion, Carrie climbing down from one of them and meeting him halfway "I told you I didn't like the idea of Mike and KITT going into this alone"

"Well those two are the reason this battle ended like it did rather than with a winner that you would not have liked"

pinching the bridge of her nose in annoyance she spoke as she looked around the place "Where's Mike?"

"left him inside Kitt, he should be able to take care of him until he wakes up since he had no important injuries"

"And Daniel?"

"Was just about to go check on him, he's right over there" he finished as he pointed over to where he had seen him

"We'll take care of him, leave it to my team. You go back and keep and eye on Mike"

The last thing Mike remembered was being thrown back by the explosion, watching the flames in the distance as he entered a world of darkness. He opened his eyes then and was received by a pitch black room that he couldn't even begin to make sense of, it was eerily silent as he looked around before he began hearing a mix of voices and sounds all around him yet for some reason he was unable to pinpoint where exactly they were coming from.

The mix of voices became slightly clearer now and he began to be able to make out words and parts of sentences mixed together: '-I call to make you a deal-', '-I am a man of my word-', '-my end of the deal is complete, I expect you to fulfill yours-', '-you know you can't win this-'...

Mike looked aimlessly around the endless room as the voices began getting drowned by other sounds, engines, guns shooting and crashes that caused some flashes of light to appear around the distance each time they echoed in the large space; at one point the voices and sounds were melded together in a cacophony of noise that grew louder with each passing second and fear finally began creeping up the man's head when even his military trained brain gave up on trying to make sense of the situation as he began running in whatever direction to try and get away from the sounds around him uselessly. He ran as fast as he could, as if he was being chased by an unseen demon that screamed with the noise that had evolved from the original mix of sounds, just when he felt that the air in his lungs couldn't carry his full speed sprint any longer all time stood still and the noise stopped completely leaving nothing but deda silence for that short second; a single voice echoed in the void just then as a large explosion ripped the dark void apart and engulfed the man and everything around him completely in orange flames 'You lose, Knight...'

With a deep gasp Mike sat up straight and looked around him, he was covered in sweat despite having been inside the cool cabin of the car and without fully taking in his surroundings he reached out with a hand to hold onto whatever was closest to him which in this case ended up part of the Trans am's front console while he took big gulps of air to refill his lungs and calm his quickened breathing.

"Easy Mike, calm down, you're safe"

slowly and partly coming back to his senses Mike half relaxed when he realized where exactly he was, the tan interior of the Two Thousand providing some semblance of safety that unfortunately was short lived when the ex-army ranger managed to put his thoughts back in order "Where's KITT?" there was silence from the AI for a couple seconds then as he did not think that breaking the news now of all times would be too good considering how out of the loop Mike still seemed "Kitt open the door and let me out"

"Mike I don't think that-"

"That was an order Kitt, open the damn door!"

Reluctantly and with a sigh of his own the Trans am complied as he sent a quick message to Michael where he stood some distance away.

With the audible click of the door unlocking Mike pulled on the handle and almost stumbled out of the car, holding onto the open door for support he looked around at what remained after the battle; his eyes skimmed over the debris that was laid around and clumps of destroyed boxes and their content strewn about until he laid his eyes on a more familiar shape further back. he stood in place as he truly analyzed what he was looking at before stumbling forwards for the first couple steps as he build up a sprint.

Michael turned to look at his partner upon receiving his message on the com-link, Mike was starting to run out into the hangar, without wasting another second he took off after him as he called his name; running after his son he could hear some more footsteps behind him and a quick glance confirmed that Sarah and the others had made it out just in time.

Mike ran as fast as his legs could carry him, as he got closer his hopes grew smaller and smaller upon seeing that not only was the scanner bar on the car completely dark, but part of it was also cracked and broken, the driver's side window was completely gone and a small part of the two front seats was slightly charred; the modified body was covered in scorch marks around the front where the explosion had been closest to and part of the side of the car itself had deep scratches and cuts around the more prominent dents and points of impact.

Getting to the front of the car Mike tried pushing open the half torn hood as it hung by one of its hinges without any success, taking a random metal barl from the ground he held up the hood what little bit he was able to push it open and got the metal piece stuck in the gap; using his full weight as leverage to push down and open the heavy hood he managed to only get it slightly more open and it wasn't until after he decided to really let his weight down on the metal bar with a jump that he broke the one remaining hinge keeping it in place. pushing over the broken hood he tried reaching inside the engine compartment before quickly retreating his hand upon coming into contact with the burning hot metal inside, whether it had been from the explosion, the work and stress the engine had gone through before or just both.

leaning in closer to look he had to squint past some of the broken parts that laid scattered around the engine compartment to find what he was looking for but once he did lay eyes upon it he was sure that nothing was going to stop him now. pushing aside the pain from moving his hands down the engine bay round hot metal and other bits and pieces of scattered debris he reached down and took a hold of the only visible corner of the black box through the mess, ignoring the pain around his hands and arms from reaching down to grab the hot metal he pulled it out through the barrier of broken components and engine parts with enough strength to fall back down to the floor on his butt, dropping the box next to him to relieve the pain on his hands he collapsed back down on the ground next to it, whatever hope he could've had left disappearing upon seeing the gray scorch marks, scratches and a dent of important size on one side of the box, ruining the previously spotless dark finish he had seen before.

As the adrenaline rush that had pushed him this far finally left him he leaned his head back and let the toll catch up to him as he let himself fall back fully on the ground whilst looking up at the roof of the hangar through the faces of his friends while darkness began clouding his vision once again.

Upon seeing Mike collapse back to the ground Michael called the AI over, immediately the Trans am was by his side.

"What's wrong with him Kitt?"

"Considering he had no physical injuries that could be an immediate threat my best guess is that he still hadn't recovered form his initial impact caused by the blast, when he woke up a minute ago inside my cabin he was very alarmed and I'd dare say even in some state of panic; Whatever dream he was having seemed to give him some sort of adrenaline rush strong enough to get him from being back there on my seat to running up here, of course these things don't last long and that is why once the rush had ran out he collapsed again"

"Well what can we do to help him then?"

"For now you could get him back inside my cabin and I can provide some oxygen to help stabilize him"

Michael looked over to where Sarah was kneeling next to Mike, checking to see if he had been injured in some way, taking a few steps closer he stopped behind the three "He's fine Sarah, just needs some rest"

the tech looked up at the older man and the AI behind him, knowing Kitt had probably already scanned him she trusted his words "What do we do with him then?"

looking over at the one male tech in front of him he spoke "If you can help me get in inside Kitt he can provide with some oxygen to help stabilize him, should work just fine until we get him downstairs"

nodding Billy moved around to help carry Mike over to the AI. as the two men moved around Zoe looked back down to what Mike had pulled out of the car's hood , she tried lifting the box but found it too hot to hold onto for long and instead she kneeled down to inspect it where it laid; it didn't take her long to identify the device and she couldn't help the sinking feeling in the pit of her stomach upon seeing the damage around KITT's core: the metal box was scratched in several places and had scorch marks around the side where the connections that attached it to the rest of the computer integrated around the car were which suggested that there was some internal damage to be dealt with, along with the fact that Mike was able to simply pull it out she guessed that the hinges that kept it place had snapped with the explosion and allowed the core to bounce around the engine compartment while the car tumbled around until it landed here.

Walking around the damaged shell she took in the damage, scratches and dents covered the dark surface and made the previously smooth finish become rough to the touch, the driver's side window was completely gone and the fire had managed to reach inside the car and leave its mark in both front seats, roof and center console. the rear end seemed to have most of the dents from where the other AI had clipped him in some of the initial hits and the passenger's side of the car was mostly just scratched.

looking around she could no longer find the bent and damaged piece of metal that was KITT's wing so instead she walked over to where she shell of Daniel's AI was standing half on its side.

Seeing what was in front of her made the tech wonder just how much had they modified the missile that allowed for it to be this strong, Having the missile still in the launcher when it exploded had exponentially increased the amount of damage that the Mustang had received since pretty much part of the side where the missile was had been ripped open to the point where part of the internal workings and components behind the outer shell were visible. both windows in that side were shattered completely and both wheels on that same side had straight out shattered, leaving just the scratched and scorched rims behind.

Sarah stood in front of KITT's shell, unable to take her eyes off of the scene, she looked down at the AI's core as it laid next to her, taking off the jacket she had been wearing she used it to pick up the hot metal box, walking past zoe as she carried the thing back down to the main chamber she told her to help Billy take the AI's shell into the adjacent spare room that was around the side of the entry tunnel where they would be working around him.

After finishing her walk down she left the damaged core on the main desk while going to pick some of the cables and other tools she might need from another room, coming back a few minutes later she booted up the special system that was designed to connect directly up to the AI's core link and began plugging in the core, hoping that the damage on the inside didn't reflect what was on the outside.

Kitt had decided to park himself by the tunnel that led to the underground base as the FBI agents took care of some of the cleaning, Eventually a couple ambulances arrived on the scene and a half aware, slightly confused Daniel was taken in one to receive proper medical attention with two of the FBI cars following as an escort. After a short discussion between Michael and Carrie they ended up deciding that the FBI would leave KITT's original shell in FLAG's custody for safekeeping to make sure whatever tech had survived wouldn't fall into the wrong hands.

A few minutes after that Kitt was dragged away from his absent minded staring into the scene in front of him by movement in his cabin; He was still pumping fresh oxygen in the cabin and as he turned his attention to the inside he saw Mike starting to finally wake up, this time in a more relaxed manner than before, the man sat up in the half reclined seat and took a few deep breaths before opening his eyes "Kitt…?"

"Glad to see you're finally awake Mike, take it easy still, you are not nearly back to full shape"

Mike went to try and rearrange himself on the seat then but the moment he applied pressure with his hands on the hard surface of the center armrest and the door he immediately retreated them with a muffled hiss. bringing up his hands he saw parts on his palms slightly swollen and red along with small cuts around those and on part of his arms. Actually, now that he thought about it he felt his hands burning hot and very sensitive to any kind of touch.

Kitt had noticed those injuries after Mike had been placed in his cabin the second time but he though it to be better to wait for him to wake up to get attention on those "I'll drive you over to the ambulance that's standing by over by the other FBI car so you can get some proper medical attention on your injureis, after that I can take you back down to the main chamber if you want"

Without a word Mike simply nodded and fell back on the seat as the car began moving, in all honesty he wasn't hurting too much, other than his hands and arms he had a slight pain on his back and a headache that were both probably a result from being thrown like a ragdoll by the explosion.

Kitt had informed his driver that Mike had woken up and he was taking him over to the ambulance by where he was speaking to Carrie, as he saw the Trans am approaching he excused himself from the FBI agent and walked over to the back end of the ambulance where some of the medics were just getting out as the AI pulled over. The car opened the door for his passenger and Mike had to use his wrists for support as he stood up, as soon as he was standing again he became severely lightheaded and fell back on the seat, his father immediately getting worried and reaching inside the car for him yet before he could reach out to help Mike his son half rose a hand where he sat "No, I'm fine. Just...give me a minute here"

Keeping his eyes closed as he took deep breaths of the no-longer-oxygen-rich environment that he had been on inside the AI's cabin it took him a minute to regain himself fully but rather than risking another incident he just sat on the edge of the car's seat and took the help from the medics there.

Sarah sat alone on the main chamber looking through the information pouring in from the AI's core, the thing was plugged into the main computer and because now she had the necessary power to have a good part of the information on the core displayed at the same time she could look over it and really check how bad the damage had been relatively quick, especially if she had part of the computer working on the diagnostic of other programs at the same time. Billy and Zoe had been tasked with salvaging whatever they could from KITT's shell so that they could have something to work with and not have to start from scratch.

As she worked on the core Sarah had part of her mind working on trying to figure out what they would to now regarding KITT"s body; both his original shell and the backup had been totalled in a very short timespan and there were no other replacements around that she knew of, she guessed that she would have to cross that bridge when she got to it because now her top priority was figuring out the severity of the damage done to the core itself.

Worst case scenario the damage would be too much to even try and recover anything but since so far she had been able to access the system through her passocodes and have most of the data displayed that was not the case; from what she could tell based on what she could see displayed on the screen as well as some of the results from the diagnostics done on a few other programs it seemed like so far KITT's core codes and programs were still intact, a good sign considering that she had low expectations when seeing that the core casing itself had been damaged. Leaning back on her chair she pulled up a view of the outer cameras, it looked like the FBI agents that remained were getting ready to leave and because she couldn't see the Two Thousand anywhere out in the hanger she guessed he was on his way back in.

The well timed whine of turbines in the distance was enough to confirm her guess and she stood up just as the tunnel doors were opening.

The Trans am rolled to a stop in the middle of the large room, this time parking on the gimbal knowing that it would most likely remain unused for at least a while, both his doors opened then and out came Michael and Mike, Sarah immediately heading for the latter as she saw him getting out of the car.

After the car opened the door for him Mike pushed himself to the side of the seat and used the top of the door for support as he stood back up, he might not have hurt himself other than the small cuts and light burns on his hands and arms but for some reason his head was still spinning half the time and the fact that Sarah all but threw herself at him did not help the matter.

Leaning back so his back was held by the car behind him Mike couldn't help but let out a small grunt when she received the weight of the worried woman, fortunately for him the AI was well aware of his present state and decided to warn Sarah about it while she was here.

"Sarah, please be careful, Mike still hasn't fully recovered"

realizing this the tech took a step back "Mike I'm sorry I didn't mean to-"

"It's fine, just...can you help me out to the couch?"

Moving around the man Sarah served as his support as both walked over to the couch, once there Mike dropped down and closed his eyes as he leaned his head back, this constant feeling of weakness was starting to get old now and it was just bothersome to him.

dragging over a chair from the desk Sarah sat down in front of Mike, leaning in she placed a hand on his shoulder "How are you feeling?"

Without moving his head from being leaned back he simply answered with a sigh "Like I got hit by a bus"

internally Sarah half laughed as her brain diverted to the fact that just maybe that wouldn't be too far from the truth. she took notice then of the bandages wrapped around his arms and palms, she half wondered how big an adrenaline rush he had gotten to not only be able to run all the way to KITT from where he was but to all out finish breaking off the hood and take out the hot metal core through the broken off pieces of engine and metal without feeling the cuts he was getting or the fact that the metal casing was hot enough to give him light burns on his hands.

She began to stand up and head back to the desk to keep working but Mike stopped her halfway there.

"Sarah?" the tech stopped to look back at him as he rose his head up to look at her "How's KITT?"

Part of her wanted to just tell him the full truth about how she still couldn't be sure of the damage done to the core plus the fact that they didn't have a shell to house the AI anymore but the other part of her thought that Mike was in no condition to worry about these things right now "We're making some progress, it seems that so far the damage to his core was not as bad as we thought"

With a relieved sigh Mike leaned his head back on the couch "Good...yeah that's good"

Feeling slightly guilty that she didn't tell him the full truth but in her eyes this had been the best thing to do considering the circumstances.

Getting back on her desk she continued to work, assigning certain programs to the computer doing some of the more complete and complex diagnostics while she worked on others by hand; as she worked she occasionally turned to look at the sleeping form of Mike on the couch, hopefully some good sleep was all he would need to get over this general aftermath from the explosion.

Upstairs on the adjacent spare room that had now been assigned as the new sort of workshop type room for the time being were Billy and Zoe, using a wild assortment of tools they had dragged up here from one of the storage rooms on the bottom floors of the complex. in the span of an hour of work they had managed to work around some of the more damaged areas and salvage some of the components hidden underneath, the fact that the body itself was still in attack mode made their work all the more difficult considering this mode was especially tough to work around because of the more high density metal alloy that made up the shell itself; because of this every time they had to cut through or bend some of the more damaged panels to get to the specialized components behind them it required the both of them to work together to be able to get through the tough outer layer.

Another hour went by and the previously organized room was now a mess of scattered parts and bits and pieces of metal, though the apparent mess was actually the way the two had decided to organize their progress. around the room were three distinct piles of things: on pile was just cut off pieces of the body or scrap metal along with broken off bits of other equipment, the second pile was whatever they could salvage from the network of intricate cables and circuitry that was all around the car under the main body panels and the third and smaller pile was all of the working components and sets that they could salvage in their entirety from either the engine compartment, around certain parts on the inside of the car or just scattered throughout the body.

At one point both just sat on the floor with their back against one of the walls to just have a few minutes to rest before continuing their work, even though both wanted nothing more than to finish this up as soon as possible to go help Sarah downstairs the amount of effort they had to put in to pry open the metal shell was just too much at times and left both of them out of breath so a few minutes to rest was pretty much a must after a few hours of constant work.

As they both sat there Zoey found herself unable to take her eyes off of the partially wrecked and dismantled car, just this very morning Sarah was sitting inside trying to fix some of the code with KITT and now she was looking at the dull shell covered in dents and scratches, side window missing and the specialized windshield cracked. Her mind drifted off to that time a few months back after the whole car incident, the car was in similar shape to how it had been back then with the exception that it was now in attack mode and the damage around the front had been a bit worse this time around, also things had been easier back then because first of all KITT had managed to stay active and even drive back from being in the the middle of nowhere lost in the deserted terrain.

-Flashback-

Zoe came back into the main chamber pushing a cart with equipment she would probably be needing once Mike and KITT returned, whatever damage he had received it had messed up the connection that linked him directly to the SSC and Sarah had been unable to pull up his diagnostics system but simply judging by the fact that it had been almost an hour since the two started heading back it was probably bad.

As if on cue to her musings she heard the distinct alarm that signaled the outer hangar doors opening, a rather long time went by compared to the time it usually took KITT to travel the distance from the hangar doors to the tunnel, the three waited expectantly until they heard the muffled sound of an engine and a couple seconds later the tunnel doors opened. On the other side of the doors was a seemingly tired Mike standing next to the open driver's side door on the beat and battered Mustang, the engine sounded strained and some smoke was seeping through the vents and cracks around the hood while some more made its way out through the exhaust.

when the doors finally were fully open Mike began helping KITT by pushing him forwards, seeing this Billy immediately ran over to them and set himself on the other side of the car as he too began pushing; from what Zoe could hear it was not a case of KITT not being able to drive himself but more of a not having enough power to move his own weight type situation coming from something getting loose or damaged around the engine, at least that was her best guess considering that not only could she hear the effort the car was putting to move himself but also Mike and Billy alone would not be able to push KITT on their own at the speed they were when you think about the fact that the AI was just about twice as heavy as the ordinary car of the same model as him.

KITT slowly rolled to a stop on his place in the gimbal, he had been barely able to bring himself inside the hangar when he felt something pop in his engine compartment that, combined with a cloud of steam seeping our around his front end, made the the extra compression he needed to properly complete the combustion process falter heavily to the point where he ended up simply rolling to a stop in the middle of the hangar when his engine wasn't able to provide the needed push. A rather worried Mike instantly began asking questions but after crashing head on through KARR several systems had been jarred loose and damaged, amongst them was his vocal synthesizer so instead of attempting to elaborate a comprehensible sentence and worry his driver further he simply brought up a small text box on the flickering, half cracked HUD explaining the situation.

Now that Mike knew what had happened he climbed down from the car and began pushing, the AI internally winced at the extra pressure being applied around his already damaged surface but the push his driver was providing was enough to get his weakened engine to move his own weight.

Zoe watched as the two men finished pushing the AI in place, the second Mike and Billy stopped pushing the car KITT finally let his engine die out with an anticlimactic clic, the scanner was slightly cracked on one side and every now and then it would flicker. Almost as soon as the engine was shut off Sarah set herself to work on manually plugging in the diagnostics cables in their respective ports on the engine compartment, the tech noticed how she was particularly careful when opening the car's hood and reaching in.

While she did that Zoe dragged the cart she had brought with the tools over to a side of the car, taking some of them and leaving them on the floor she then sat down next to them and slid down on the repair bay under the gimbal where she began working on fixing the AI's Nano-repair module; the damage he had received was bad but she was sure that it was still in one piece, at least enough so that she would be able to fix that and hopefully with a soft reset the program would rearrange the Nano-bites in the skin and be able to repair the damage.

While she worked under the heat of the cooling engine she could hear Sarah half arguing with Mike for facing KARR head on with no weapons or defenses whatsoever, the man got away with it simply because he had managed not only to defeat the other AI but to bring KITT back in relatively one piece; shaking her head in slight amusement she continued to work, switching between this tool and that as she did so and replacing some of the damaged parts on the conglomeration of electronic equipment that was the secondary brain in charge of making the Nano-skin respond to the AI's commands.

the three techs worked around the AI for the following hour and Sarah was the first one to finish setting KITT's systems back up, she had told the car to leave the setup to her while he took the time to rest after all that he had gone through but of course the Mustang didn't want to leave all the work to the tech. Unplugging the cables she had inside the engine compartment she carefully closed the damaged hood and put her things away, disappearing out one of the hallways only to come back with a first aid kit.

Walking straight to where Mike was sitting she pulled over a chair and left the kit on the desk

"And just what do you think you're doing now?"

"You got a few hits of your own, I'm planning on fixing them"

"Come on Sarah I'm fine"

"I wasn't asking Mike" opening the box she gout out a gauze and poured some antiseptic on it "Now stop whining and scooch over here"

in the span of the next half hour-ish Billy finished his work inside the AI and left for something to drink, shortly after Zoe was reconnecting the Nano-skin's brain back into its proper port after fixing it completely. reaching out up on the floor from inside the bottom repair bay she left her tools back in the box and pulled herself up and out into the main floor with the rest.

-End flashback-

She kept a loose gaze in the mangled car in front of her as she remembered that time back a few months ago, she had reached down under the car a little while ago to try and get access to that same device to see how much she could rescue off of that particular piece of equipment, she had hoped that it would be enough so that Sarah would have a decent base to work over when re-coding the Nano-skin yet again but to her luck either that area of the undercarriage had suffered more damage that she would've liked or the device had gotten lose at some point and was somewhere else around that area on the car's underside or even out in the hangar with some other debris, she deeply hoped that was the case because otherwise it would add a whole lot more work to them which meant that it would take longer for them to get KITT back in his shell...if they did manage to get him back from the mess that was his body and programs themselves at this point.

Besides her Billy stood up and had a walk around the car, leaning down and having a proper look around as if looking for something before walking back towards her.

"Come on Zoe, the sooner we get this done the sooner we can help Sarah downstairs and get KITT back"

"If it's even possible"

"We'll be fine, you know he has his ways, we only have to make sure we're smart enough to figure out what he did this time. We did find him once already didn't we?"

"That was different, we had the backup network here and KITT himself had stored himself safely on the internet"

"Well who are we to say that wasn't the case this time around?"

That got the woman thinking but for some reason she just knew that this hadn't been the case this time, regardless, Billy was right in one thing: the sooner they finished stripping apart the car the sooner they could get back to working on the actual software.

With a sigh she stood back up and grabbed her tools before heading back over to work around the engine bay.

Sarah ran a hand through her hair as she leaned back in her chair after finishing her work on another section of code, she had been working for hours now but her main priority was to get this last program integrated into the main neural net to be able to reboot KITT and hopefully get an answer as to what the AI's status actually was. See she could go through all of the programs individually and see for herself any errors but the most efficient way to find any errors would be by fixing those programs needed for KITT to be active and have him help her find any damaged codes; judging by the state the core was in she was sure there had to be some damage done to the electronics inside which in consequence could've corrupted some of the codes themselves but at a level that was too small for any normal computer to detect, to find those she would either need to find them herself scanning carefully through endless lines of codes or have KITT help her since being something having to do with his own essence of being he would know what parts of the codes were damaged or altered...well that was considering she was able to bring KITT back with the repairs she had done.

Pushing aside the few programs she still had open she opened a separate command prompt on the main screen, punching in a code there were a few moments of silence before a low beeping sound came from the computer, a few seconds later and a series of lights lit up on the side of the core as it laid on the desk next to Sarah plugged into the computer; a set of three small lights blinked on in a yellow color as on the screen a series of code ran through at a speed too fast to read stopped while Sarah expectantly waited.

After a few seconds the code stopped running through the computer and a simple black text box remained, there was nothing coming from the other side and a pang of worry set itself on the back of the tech's mind. when nothing came after a full minute she decided to try and make the first prompt to test a theory that she wished would be false.

'You are the Knight Industries Three Thousand, who are you?'

after a couple seconds came the response on the textbox in a different color 'I am the Knight Industries Three Thousand, K.I.T.T. for short, but you may call me KITT. Who are you?'

Without answering Sarah closed her eyes and leaned back again as she wondered what had happened.

'KITT?'

'Yes?'

'Does the name Sarah Grayman sound familiar to you?'

There were a few seconds between the moment Sarah sent the question and the answer came back 'It does not, should I have some connection to it?'

Then Sarah realized what had happened, somehow KITT had lost all of his memories, that's why he only answered once she had prompted the main activation command that was his name; the depth of this problem took her a few seconds to really sink in but she needed more information to be able to know the true extent of the damage.

'KITT, requesting access to primary and secondary data banks'

nearly instantly the message 'Access Granted' was displayed and Sarah was somewhat worried that the AI had asked no questions and willingly gave her the access she had requested.

She hoped that she now would be able to pretty much get an idea of what information KITT had about himself and the immediate time and place he was in. his memory had been wiped entirely all the way back to what she believed was way back just a couple months after being first activated on the computer in her dad's garage, still at least two months before the whole black river corporation went looking for the Prometheus program and her dad. he might not be saying anything to her right now but she was sure he must've been at least somewhat confused considering there was a gap in his data banks that was over a year in length between his last memory and right now so she decided to start back up from scratch and build some semblance of trust with him.

'KITT, my name is Sarah Grayman, I am the daughter of Dr. Charles Grayman; your creator. you, alongside us work for the Foundation for Law and Government, FLAG in cooperation with the FBI and other government branches'

'Where is Charles Grayman?'

'He...died a few months ago on a plane crash. I've always been your head technician and after him I also took the role of head for the organization'

'If I may, Sarah, I am somewhat confused, there seems to be a gap in my memories of over a year until this point. Do you know what the reason behind that is?'

'I do; I'll explain it shortly now and you'll see everything for yourself after I give you access to some other files. After we had some issues with the FBI one of their coordinators cloned your program and made another AI, they messed with the codes themselves and made it flawed in several ways but you and your driver went out to face them. you two won but in the process you suffered heavy damage in what was your physical shell to a point that most of your programs were damaged or straight out corrupted by the damaged components'

there was silence for a few minutes then, Sarah let the information she had just provided the AI sink in as he went over it and digested it

'I assume that in this accident I somehow lost my memories'

'yeah, I'll be giving those back little by little in the course of the next few days while we work on getting you another shell so that you can get caught up in what happened in the last year'

after talking to the AI and explaining a few more things for a little while she dumped on him the first block of information she downloaded from the main computer, as she had talked to KITT she realized something; even though all the talk had been through text she somehow could feel that there was no emotion to his words, everything was just simple and cold answers which meant that not only had KITT lost his memories, but his integrated learning net had somehow been reset. yes eventually he would have all his memories back but the meaning had had previously had over them or the cultivated range of emotions and expressions he had learned to accept as well as the internal growth he had acquired over the course of the last year would remain lost.

Pacing around the room her lost gaze landed on the sleeping form of Mike still on the couch as she wondered what would become of him when he knew that not only KITT didn't really remember him yet, but that the bond and connection the two of them had formed had disappeared completely...

Billy and Zoe reappeared in the main room pushing a car each filled of equipment, leaving their cargo on a side of the room they approached the sleeping form of Sarah on the main desk. Zoe placed a hand on her friend's shoulder lightly only to be greeted by her sitting straight up on her chair and looking at her

"Oh, Sorry I didn't mean to wake you up"

"No, it's fine. I wasn't really asleep anyway...more like thinking about what to do next"

Looking around at the computers around and the desk and the main screen as well as at the plugged in core on a side she easily connected the dots "I take it you were able to bring KITT back?"

With a sigh Sarah leaned back in the chair "Well...yes and no"

"What does that mean?"

"Well, I managed to bring KITT back, yes, but some of the direct damage done to his core has caused part of his neural net to reset, more specifically his memories and integrated learning and behavior algorithm"

"So he doesn't remember anything, just reinstall his memories. we have them all here in the mainframe as a backup after what happened a couple days ago"

"I'm working on that, I already gave him the first batch of memories so he can go through them and store them accordingly; the problem here is that there is no way to reinstall his integrated learning and behaviour algorithm which means that even though we can give him back all his memories all attachment he previously had towards them and whatever bond he could've created with us and Mike is...well, gone…"

"it'll be like starting from scratch in that field then huh"

"Yeah and I really don't want to tell this to Mike, he's already physically shaken up after all this, I don't know how he'll take the fact that his bond with KITT is pretty much gone after all this"

both Billy and Zoe exchanged looks when they realized that there really was no way to restore that part of the core, they really would have to rebuild the trust they had built with the AI over the last year since they both started to really work with him.

Sitting at her chair and setting herself to work on another set of broken codes Zoe turned to Sarah upon remembering something "Umm, Sarah? we don't have a body for KITT to use anymore, we couldn't repair his backup shell but we did manage to get back some key components that remained untouched or just slightly banged and easy to repair"

"I've been thinking about that, still working on a solution for that particular problem"

"You think the FBI could give us a hand?"

"I really don't feel like going to them for help after all of this, this whole mess was their fault to begin with"

"True, but maybe that very thing could be our argument to pretty much guarantee their help, plus we could maybe get back on the partnership we had before under less terms and restrictions so it can still be only us five but we get some sponsorship from them don't you think?"

"Well...when you put it like that it doesn't sound half bad"

"See, now leave all the convincing to me, you just go talk to Carrie for the formalities. I'll make sure the directors see our way in these things and give us the support we need"

"Thanks, you and Billy should get some rest after all the work you two put up recovering those parts"

"You don't need any help here?"

"Not for the moment, I gotta let KITT go over the data I just gave him and I can just keep working on fixing some of the simpler codes in the meantime"

"You sure?"

"Yeah, I'll wait for Mike to wake up and maybe I'll get some rest then"

"Well, don't overwork yourself too much then"

Standing from their place both techs walked off into a hallway over to their pods, Sarah laid back on her chair with crossed arms absentmindedly staring at the screen, her mind half occupied trying to solve all the present problems and the other half deeply lost in thought.

The silent form of the Knight two thousand had quietly kept watch over what had been happening over the course of the last few hours, both down here and up on the garage where Billy and Zoe had been working on the AI's shell; he had been looking over Sarah's work and even had a hand in help with some of the codes she had assigned to the other computers in order to make thing faster. Just as the others he was expecting some damage somewhere due to the fact that the shell of the core itself had been damaged but not even he could really know what could happen to KITT.

He was especially anxious when the tech managed to bring the AI back online inside it's own core but whatever hope of his successor being fine or with just some minor problems quickly vanished when he saw how he didn't answer to Sarah immediately and his apprehension only got worse when he truly realized the extent of the damage, KITT was back on square one.

Mike slowly began gaining back awareness of his surroundings as he slowly began waking up, keeping his eyes closed as he let the rest of his senses wake up he could feel a slight pain on the back of his neck, probably from falling asleep for some hours with his head leaned back on the couch; raising one of his hand up to his head he covered his eyes from the lights on the room as he fully opened his eyes, rubbing away the grogginess on them he sat back up and quickly regretted it when he tried applying enough strength against the couch with his hands to slightly push himself up and was received with a painful reminder of what had happened just a few hours ago.

Looking around the empty room his eyes locked on the plethora of devices connected to one specific section on the main computer, KITT's core plugged in onto the one computer that was directly connected to the main display on the desk along some other things he didn't really recognize.

"Glad to see you're awake"

turning back to what was directly in front of him he was greeted by the sight of the Knight Two Thousand sitting in the gimbal "Guess I did really need the rest huh?"

"How are you feeling?"

"Better, I think the lightheadedness is gone now, at least from what I can tell just sitting here"

"Good, that means your only concern will be the small cuts and burns you need to take care of in your arms"

"Guess so" Standing up and holding onto the nearby wall for support just in case he laid eyes on the computer where a familiar plain black text box was open "Is KITT back?"

"Yes Sarah managed to fix some of the programs but there is still much to do" as the Trans am spoke Mike walked over to the desk and leaned down to type on the computer "Wait, Mike he's not ready for that yet, please" the man continued as if nothing had happened though, and in the span of a couple seconds he had sent a greeting to the AI through the text box

'Hey KITT, you there?'

a few seconds went by before any response was sent back, but then 'I am, is that you Sarah?'

'no no KITT, it's Mike, Man am I glad to hear from you...well kind of'

'Mike, Michael Knight?'

'Yeah KITT it's me, your driver'

there were some more seconds of silence, deep down Mike was starting to get a bad feeling but he couldn't quite identify why, then came the response 'information lacking, I don't understand'

taking a step back Mike fell on the chair directly behind him and pulled in closer to the desk 'What do you mean you don't understand?'

'I lack the information to confirm or deny your previous statement'

'What? come on KITT it's me...don't you remember?'

'I do not, for some reason unknown to me I have a 16-month-long memory gap in my data banks, the only people I remember having contact with before the gap was with Dr. Charles Grayman and then Sarah Grayman some minutes ago'

turning back to face the black car behind him he was greeted by the slow movement of the ruby red scanner "Kitt?"

"The damage done to his core might not have affected any of his systems or programs too greatly but it did affect the part of the neural net that consisted of his memories and integrated learning and behavior algorithm, causing it to reset, Sarah started working on restoring his memories a few minutes ago before she left to look for something but eventually those will be back and he should remember everything in due time"

"So he'll be back to normal, just gotta give him time"

"well, yes and no"

"What is that supposed to mean?"

"He will have all his memories back if all goes as planned, but whatever experience he had previously acquired and any and all attachment he could've had to said memories will be gone; in that sense he will be back to how he was when first activated and there is no way that we know of to recover that specific part of him"

"But...that would mean that the personality he had cultivated to this date throughout the last year would be gone, as well as whatever attachment he could've had with any of us"

the silence that came as the answer from the older AI was the only confirmation he needed, leaning back in the chair he absentmindedly started at the screens in front of him as data flew by too fast to even try and make anything out of it.

Off in the distance Mike heard a voice, looking over towards its source he found Sarah walking out of one of the adjacent hallways while talking on the phone, upon seeing him up and sitting at the computer she quickly finished whatever conversation she was having and hung up before walking over to him.

"Hey Mike, glad to see you're up. How are you feeling?"

"Better, at least compared to how it was before I fell asleep. I saw you were able to bring KITT back"

"Well yes...but Mike there's something you need to know, KITT-"

"-I know…"

Confusion evident on her face she crossed her arms where she stood next to him "You know?"

"I tried talking to him, didn't even know who I was so I asked Kitt" he turned around in the chair to face in the direction of the Trans am "He explained everything"

somewhat relieved that she didn't have to tell him herself she dragged a chair over and sat next to Mike, reaching out to hold his hand being careful of his injuries "We're gonna bring him back Mike, we'll figure out a way"

"I hope we do, To have everything we had just thrown away just...sucks, you know?"

"Yeah. Well I do have some good news that might cheer you up"

"What's that?"

"Just got off the phone with Carrie, apparently the FBI does feel like this mess was their fault to begin with and they have agreed to help us in anything we need to repair KITT, that includes help in finding him another body like the one he had"

"Couldn't we just buy one from the dealership ourselves?"

"Normally yes but the specific model KITT had was produced for a limited time and only a specific number of them, the FBI should have no trouble locating one in good condition but the problem comes when buying it from said person, considering how rare they are they will be hard to buy out."

"Guess so…"

Looking at the man's tired expression and considering the time she stood up "Why don't you go get some real sleep in a proper bed, I gave KITT the first set of memories and it will be a while until he's ready to receive the next one; there's nothing we can do for him until then"

"First block? why not dump all the memories in right now"

"Well this way it will give KITT the chance to go over them himself, he'll be able to really get into each memory file while if we were to just dump all the files in he wouldn't be able to really go through all the data, it would all just be stored and more than likely only looked into when searching for a reference point to something"

"Well...and how long will this whole process take?"

"Couple weeks, which to be fair is not much of an issue considering that we don't even have a body yet, even if we did there is much to work on to get it set up and ready to house the AI so time is not something too important at the moment. Now, why don't you go take a much needed shower and sleep until it's actually morning"

"Yeah, guess I'll do that then"

Sarah watched as Mike stood from the chair and disappeared into one of the hallways before leaning back in the chair herself and run a hand through her hair with a sigh, gesture that did not escape the AI sitting behind her.

"Something wrong Sarah?"

turning around to face the AI she stood up "I told Mike that we would bring KITT back fully...I don't know if that's possible. We have no set record on the actual neural net itself so we have nothing to take information from in that regard and therefore no way to recover all the information lost there...but how am I supposed to tell that to him? you saw him, he might not have show it too much because of how he is but even then I could tell that the news about KITT fell hard on him"

"I could do some research and see if there is any way to fully bring him back if that'll make you take some time to rest. I don't know how different his neural net is or how exactly it works but if you can give me that information I could look into finding a possible solution to this problem"

"You really think we can fix it?"

"I don't know, it is a longshot but at this point what else do we have to try?"

"Guess you're right, I'll send you some files with the data you may need"

"And after you go and have some real sleep"

the start of a smile made its way to the corner of her lips for the first time in the last 24 hours and she half laughed at the AI's persistence "Yeah, I will Kitt"

Leaning down in another computer she linked the complex's network to work with the Two Thousand freely and she sent him the files with any information he could've needed to look into possible solution. Giving her thanks to the older AI as she walked off she headed back to her pod to at least try and get some much needed rest.


	12. Chapter 12

The light blue spark hovered around the confines of the computer he was housed in, he had been confused when the activation prompt called his attention and noticed then how much time it had passed since he was last online, it had truly felt like mere hours but the computer he had access to at the moment had another thing to say; when Sarah had introduced herself to him her last name did ring a bell since it was the same as his creator's but he had never seen or heard anything from the woman.

after talking to her for a little bit she gave him quite a heavy package to go through containing memories and data that had apparently been his own but that after some sort of accident he had lost his memory completely. He decided to believe that story simply because it was the on thing that he could think of that could explain the memory gap of well over a year that he currently had and if that in itself wasn't enough then the fact that the first memories and data he received matched perfectly with his last memory before today surely was.

The AI stopped going through the data files for a bit and just idly hovered around the mostly dark void that was only illuminated by the royal blue light coming from the files that had been sent to him, he was still very confused and had many questions as to how exactly he had gotten to where he was right now but he guessed that those questions would be answered with time as he began recovering all of his memories.

After a few minutes he went back to going through his early memories and really got to know who his creator was; his full concentration on the memories he was going through was then broken by the input box, someone was asking if he was there by name so he did the only logic thing and responded as well as asked who the person was. the person in question identified themselves as Mike, in his records he had only one Mike in hi data banks so he asked if the man was Michael Knight.

To his surprise the man did answer to that name but he also said that he was his driver which in turn, made no sense to him since he was only a computer program; after he expressed his lack of knowledge there was no more inputs from the person and after waiting a good few minutes just in case he resumed the analysis of the data he had been provided with, the urge to answer all his questions pushing him to keep working through the night.

The following morning Michael was the first one to enter the main chamber, to both his and Kitt's surprise, the latter being pulled completely from his work by his driver's greeting.

"Morning Kitt"

"Michael, surprised to see you're awake before anyone else"

"Well so am I to be honest, what happened to the others?"

"They were working still well into the night, eventually only Sarah remained here until I managed to convince her to get some rest while I worked on some research"

grabbing an iced coffee from a nearby mini bar he sat down on the couch next to the AI "Research? what do these guys have you doing?"

"Well first of all I think there are some things you need to know...about KITT"

a bad feeling settled in the pit of his stomach as he pictured the worse case scenario in his mind "What's up with him?"

"Well Sarah did manage to get him back later into night after fixing some of the damaged programs, she did this mainly to have KITT himself help her in figuring out what other programs were damaged or corrupted but instead she found that KITT had no memory whatsoever"

slightly relieved that at least the AI was working the man let out a breath he didn't know he was holding; listening to the AI as he explained he turned his attention away from his drink and back over to the car in front of him "Wait you said he lost all his memories?"

"Yes, from what he says apparently the only other thing he remembers before this was being back at Dr. Grayman's lab before he was even fully integrated into the Mustang body"

"Well...we've got the files can't we just give him back all his memories?"

"Yes, Sarah started the process of giving him those back last night but there is yet another problem"

"Which is?"

"Somehow his neural net was damaged in the explosion as well, his integrated learning and behaviour algorithm was reset which means that whatever attachment he could've had to those memories and us along with the personality he had been creating for himself over the last year is completely gone"

"Don't they have a backup for that though?"

"Well you see that particular system is the one they cannot have a backup on simply because of the type of information that it is. the task I was given was trying to see if there is a way to recover that data with what we have since Sarah herself has no idea if something like that is even possible"  
Michael remained quiet for a few seconds as he really analyzed the information and understood the real severity of the situation; at this point even if they had managed to bring KITT back it would've been almost the same as if they hadn't been able to recover him at all in the first place "And how are you doing on that research then, any luck?"

"I still can't be certain if this there is a possibility to recover the information or not, right now I am performing some tests involving certain parts of the metadata embedded within each memory file to see if there is anything salvageable from there"

"Is that the only way we could maybe get that back?"

"After trying several approaches to the situation I believe that this is the one way we could have a chance at truly recovering KITT; I have to keep working on these tests and hope that I do find a way otherwise Sarah could've been right from the start and there might not be a way to fully recover him"

Michael remained a few more minutes sitting on the couch before finally finishing the iced coffee, standing up he stretched out and turned his attention over to the large main desk where he just now noticed the AI's core plugged in and running, walking over he sat on the chair nearest to the core and watched the information run across a nearby computer screen without even trying to fully comprehend what it was happening there.

"So, does Mike know all this Kitt?"

"mostly he does"

"Why mostly?"

"well he knows KITT has no memories and that the integrated learning and behaviour algorithm on his neural net was reset but he doesn't quite know that the odds of recovering the information from his neural net"

"Guess that might be for the better at the moment considering the circumstances..."

"yes, he is still at least another night away from being fully recovered physically but the injuries to his arms will take some more to heal completely"

"I can assure you that tomorrow once he feels back up to speed we'll be seeing much more of him around this room, especially if by then KITT has any of the memories he had with him back"

"more than likely, though I have to say I am somewhat worried"

turning the chair around to face the Trans am Michael half tilted his head to a side "worried? what do you have to be worried about Kitt?"

"to put it simply, once Mike feels better he's bound to become anxious over what will be a long recovery process for KITT which, in turn, will cause him to be more agitated and on edge. As you might remember we have to go back to the FBI quarters to make a first hand eye witness of everything Daniel caused so the agency can have the solid proof they need to put him away"

"yeah I know but what does that have to do with Mike?"

"We cannot let Mike know we are going to testify against Daniel, the situation here is going to have him under enough stress as it is and he blames Daniel for all of this in the first place"

"With good reason"

"yes, but please let me finish. If Mike goes to the FBI with us to face Daniel again after what he did and in an irritated mood what do you think would happen?"

"...okay, yeah you have a good point there, he won't like it though"

"I'm sure you'll agree that it's for the better"

"Sure do buddy, I sure do"

A little while later and Sarah came back inside the room, she greeted the older man and AI before sitting back on the computer plugged into KITT's core where she performed another set of diagnostics on some programs she was missing last night before sending them over to KITT for him to reinstall directly.

as the morning progressed everyone came back and filled the room, Mike found himself on the desk with Sarah for most of the time while Billy and Zoe kept switching between fixing the remaining broken codes in KITT and fixing or extracting whatever they could from the components they had brought back from KITT's destroyed shell the previous day, all in all everyone was working on something to try and get KITT back up and running as soon as possible.

For what was the following two days the work routine remained the same, the FBI had contacted Sarah a few times regarding the status on the hunt for KITT's new body but so far at least they still hadn't found one in the conditions they were looking for. Michael walked into the main chamber just as the tech was finishing up a call about that very topic and he simply walked past the main desk and over to the Trans am as he opened the driver's side door for him, just to his luck him getting on the car did not escape his son's eyes as he remained sitting on the desk; the young man was just about back to normal with the exceptions that he still needed to keep the bandages on his arms for at least a couple more days and just as Kitt had predicted the lack of clear answers on pretty much anything regarding the younger AI had him a bit on edge so the last thing he needed was him knowing where they were going.

"Taking Kitt somewhere dad?"

standing next ot the car on the open door Michael laid back on the side of the car itself as he tried to put on a calm facade "Just taking Kitt for a drive around since he's been cramped up in here for the last few days"

"oh, well...think I can come with you two? wouldn't mind some stretching out myself at least for a little while"

nervous Michael tapped his fingers on the roof of the car in hopes the AI would catch the hint and help him out, to his relief he did and before anything else could be said he spoke

"Mike don't you think it would be better if you stayed with KITT? he's bound to have gone through some of the earlier memories with you and you could start working on rebuilding your trust with him"

"I know, Sarah just got the last batched of damaged code fixed though and he's resetting to make sure everything works as it should so he'll be out for at least a couple hours"

Seeing as there was nothing to keep Mike here as well as the fact that he was as persistent as he was Michael walked around the open door to close it before going to stand in front of the Trans am "Look Mike, we need you to stay here, Kitt and I have some business to take care of and we believe that it'll be in everyone's best interest if only the both of us go"

"business? come on what are you two really going out for, you can just tell me it can't be that bad"

"I'll tell you, only if you promise that you'll not fight to come with us"

"Sure, whatever just tell me"

Taking a deep breath he crossed his arms then "Kitt and I were required to go back to the FBI and testify against Daniel to make the hard evidence they need to put him away for sure, they only requested us because the four of you were directly involved in the event that started this in the first place that was them trying to shut you guys down; Kitt and I came in later so we are, in their eyes, impartial witnesses...well, that and Kitt being an AI wouldn't lie to an official authority as the FBI so that way they know everything we say happened as told"

for a few seconds there was only silence across the room where the group stood, Michael internally braced himself for the explosion that was sure to come and that is why his son's answer confused him as much as everyone else in the room

"Okay"

looking at his son as if he had grown a third eye he uncrossed his arms "that's it? thought you'd be mad or something at least"

"Nope, you two better leave now if you want to make it in time though so I'll leave you to it" turning around the young man began walking off into an adjacent hallway

taking a step in the direction he disappeared off into Michael askes loud enough for him to hear "Hey where do you think you're going?"

without turning back Mike simply answered as he continued to walk away away "gonna grab something to eat, I'm starving"

still standing in front of the car Michael turned to look at the remaining three people in the room but by their faces he could tell that they were just as confused as he was so rather than staying and question his luck he decided to walk back inside Kitt and both left the SSC to start heading over to the FBI station they had been to before where some of the officers would be waiting for them.

after spending part of the ride in silence Michael left the control of the car to Kitt for a little while as he stretched, still confused about the situation earlier

absentmindedly looking at the roof of the car Michael closed his eyes as he spoke "So you think he's planning something?"

"pardon me?"

"Mike...I think we got away way too easy and I have a bad feeling about it, you think he has a plan?"

"Knowing him more than likely, I did find it very suspicious that he didn't mind not going after Daniel now since he's the one to blame for all that's happened to KITT while very possibly making it near impossible for us to bring him back completely"

"Yeah, if it was me in his place I'd be furious right now"

"the fact that you just mention that as well as me knowing how alike the two of you are I am beginning to feel that Mike could be working on something behind our backs and whatever it is I guess that it will not end well"

"yeah I feel the same now that you mention it...we need to keep an eye out for him Kitt, let's just focus on this thing first so that we can give them all the information they need to put Daniel away for good"

The remainder of the drive to the location was spend in mostly silence, Kitt had informed Carrie of their arrival ten minutes prior so by the time they parked in place she was already outside and waiting. Michael climbed out of the car and the two greeted each other before moving on to the matter at hand

"A small council of some of the FBI heads in separate divisions is already waiting in one of the meeting rooms inside along with Daniel, I'll give Kitt a secure network that he can access to be able to see and hear everything in that room as well ac assess to one of the screens in case any of the hard recorded evidence is needed"

"Thanks, we appreciate all the effort you and your colleagues are putting so we can get this over with"

"I should be the one thanking you Mr. Knight, without your direct input on the situation this case would've probably gone down a whole different route...one that's less than ideal for all parties involved I believe"

"It's no problem at all, really, everyone just wants to see this through and I'm glad to be able to make the process go at least a bit quicker"

"Well, shall we go in then?"

Without a word Michael simply motioned for the woman to lead the way and both disappeared into the building; just about five minutes later and Kitt received the secure network agen Rivai had mentioned and he instantly got in to see the long table with FBI directives on both sides, sitting near one of the ends of the table was Daniel while Michael and Carrie took a seat on the opposite end to allow the case to be officially open and get the meeting started.

Everything started out in relative ease, both sides of the discussion were explaining their points of view on the case and trying to make the opposing party agree in some shape or form but as the topic began moving forward to the time when Daniel had defied direct orders and gone ahead with his plan anyway was when everything began getting heated.

While Michael and Carrie along with their side of the board began arguing not only the lack of responsibility of the actions the man had taken there but also the simple fact that he had disobeyed direct orders and used government property and funds to get his way was when Daniel's side argued that even though he had broken the law in a way he had made incredible advancements in artificial intelligence for the short time and lack of proper resources he had at the time; the main argument now had turned in a way that the topic had changed from the case at hand to the benefits of mass producing AI-driven vehicles for both military and commercial use, more so on the military side than anything honestly.

When Michael finally got tired of listening to the directors argue about that he decided to put his foot down and with a rather annoyed demeanor he stood up fast enough to call the attention of everyone in the room.

"okay I've had it with everyone arguing whether or not AIs with military purposes are viable or not, this was not the topic we came here to discuss and frankly I'll say that if this experience didn't scream bad idea to mass producing or copying AI programing then I think there's something wrong with who's leading one of the top intelligence organization in this country. Going back to the real issue here and seeing as things aren't going anywhere with pure dialogue I think it's about time we speed things up and get this really over with" Sitting back down and half turning to the screen he continued "Kitt, do me a favor and roll some of the footage from both th attack on us as well as the security feed from the SSC's cameras inside the hangar with the attack on KITT and Mike"

Without a word the AI complied and on the TV that was perched up on a wall the footage began rolling; starting on the chase the two had endured against daniel the clip ended when the EMP that had caused Kitt to shut down was deployed, immediately after the footage from different cameras around the SSC's hangar began playing where Daniel climbed out of the car, the audio was not the best so the AI took the freedom of adding the necessary subtitles whenever either of the two men spoke during that particular moment which to their advantage the dialogue played perfectly against Daniel by literally using his own words against him.

The video kept playing and Kitt made sure to emphasize certain moments where the other AI seemed particularly reckless and aggressive towards KITT before jumping over to the last part of the footage where both cars were stuck in an all out tug-of-war when Daniel's AI had been given different orders and was aiming for the kill before KITT stopped it by blowing up the both of them. The AI was glad to see that even from his perspective the directors were able to see that even though they knew how advanced and perfected KITT was as an AI and the code had been practically copied and modified for Daniel's there was a clear difference in their very moves; KITT was precise and took into account his surroundings and the safety of the people nearby whenever he attacked back or used himself as bait to draw fire in a direction that he was sure would not affect the people just some distance away, the other AI on the other side had reckless moves and with only one goal in mind it did not care what was in its path when it came to attacking plus there was also the fact that it was willing to take out the life of its own 'creator' in order to eliminate the target that was now Mike.

Kitt cut the video a little after that when he drove into the debris-filled hangar followed by the FBI cars just so that the rest of the directors were able to see that whatever evidence their people had of this scene had not been tampered with it or staged in any way.

Michael looked around the room after the footage had stopped rolling and was pleased to see that not only were the directors themselves looking between them like making some sort of silent agreement but Daniel seemed awfully nervous where he sat, the one man next to him sharing the same emotion.

After a few minutes of relative silence and low discussion amongst the members of the board one man in particular stood up, fixing his suit and tie before taking a deep breath.

"I believe that we've all agreed that with our earlier discussion as well as this new pieces of evidence provided by Mr. Knight here it is safe to say that some actions need to be taken" he turned over to face the side where Daniel was sitting "We'll discuss the exact terms of said actions once another council determines the true severity of this situation, taking into account that Knight Industries now FLAG is one of the agencies we've worked with closely for some time now" he sat down and looked like he was about to continue talking but was instantly stopped when the door to the room was opened; Michael's eyes widened when he saw no other than Mike standing at the door with fury in his eyes, to make matters worse he noticed that the one and only thing he was looking at was at the man sitting on the other end of the room who now showed a whole other level of fear in his face so the moment the door closed and Mike began making his way through the room he stood up and blocked his path by standing directly in front of him

Speaking in a hushed voice he kept a hand pressed to the man's chest to try and prevent any sudden moves "Stop right there Mike, what the hell are you doing here? we told you Kitt and I were going to take care of this"

"like hell you are, this concerns me the most if anything considering the circumstances don't you think?"

"Calm down Mike, no need to make a scene here everything's settled now"

this time Mike spoke loud enough to make sure the conversation did not stay only between him and his father "The only time anything's going to really be settled here is when you let me through to give Daniel a little piece of my mind"

"Damnit Mike stop making a scene you're a grown man for god's sake!"

applying more pressure against his father Mike managed to get one of his hands past him as he pointed at the cowering form of Daniel "He is the cause that we might never be able to get KITT back, do you even understand that?!" adjusting his footing he pushed himself off of Michael and put some space between the two "I worked with KITT for over a year and through it I saw him grow and evolve as an AI to levels no one in this room would probably ever understand and all because of what? because he wanted nothing more than the power and money that would come if his experiment succeeded even after disobeying direct orders not to continue. KITT will more than likely never be back to his former self and all the trust and the bond we had will be lost forever because he wanted nothing more than power" taking a deep breath Mike visibly relaxed a little as he unintentionally let the emotions he had been bottling up run free, turning to look around at the directives still sitting in their places he spoke again "But I guess it doesn't matter what I say here, none of you understand any of what I just said more than Daniel understands that my AI had more humanity in a silicon chip than him in his entire miserable self"

the man that had been speaking prior to Mike's entrance stood up again and made his way up towards him, placing a hand on the younger man's shoulder he spoke sincerely "I am truly sorry that you and the rest of your organization have to go through this because of our mistake, I assure you that we will be sure to take appropriate actions to avoid anything like this ever happening again as well as making sure he understands the real consequences of his actions. I'll be sure to see that the FBI does everything in our power to help in any way we can to repair the Knight Three Thousand to make up for our mistake as much as possible, I give you my personal word on that one"

Less than an hour later and both father and son were exiting the FBI building and climbing inside the black T-top, as soon as both doors were closed Michael directed his look over to the AI's voice modulator "Nice of you to warn me Mike was here by the way Kitt"

"I'm sorry Michael I did not see him when he arrived to the building or the room itself"

"That's fine, we're past that now" switching his look over to Mike he continued "How did you even get here Mike?"

"I've got my own car you know, it's parked around the back. I'll gome and get it later or something"

Michael's expression changed to a slightly more gently one then "Mike, I know how you feel despite what you might think but coming here with the intention of beating up Daniel would not have solved anything"

"I know that, I thought that it would at least make me feel somewhat better but you were in the way and now I just feel worse than before"

"You heard them, the FBI will be helping with anything we need to make up for all this so hopefully we'll have a better time when finding certain components or just resources in general"

"Doesn't matter, it's not like they know how to bring KITT back"

Michael knew that he was not going to get anywhere with Mike in this particular state so instead he turned on the ignition and pulled away from the building, he tried offering Mike something to eat before they left town for the highway but even that didn't seem to be able to bring him out of the hole had had fallen into.

Sarah had noticed that Mike had disappeared for a while and part of her was somewhat worried so when she heard from Kitt that Mike had crashed their meeting with the FBI directors she found her fears justified, luckily from what the AI had told her everything had still gone smoothly enough and Michael had been enough of a prevention to keep Mike from all out beating up Daniel himself on the spot.

Slightly relaxed that the legal side of things was done she kept focusing on fixing everything she could in regards to KITT, she was done messing with most of the software and Billy and Zoe were finishing up whatever programs were still missing to be fixed while she began focusing on the hardware side of things; tools in hand she found herself tampering with components of various sizes and purposes by welding back lose cables and connections before using simple tests to make sure that it worked before moving to the next piece out of the pile that the other two techs had brought down from their scouting on KITT's destroyed shell.

The head tech leaned back on her chair after finishing up with another component, a low 'ping' called her attention back to the computers she was working by where a message from KITT now appeared; leaving the fixed equipment with the other few pieces she had done she leaned back forwards to properly see the computer where the little back text box had popped up with a new message.

'Sarah, are you there?'

'I am, what's the matter KITT?'

'I have just finished reviewing and storing the data block you gave me and I am ready to start working on another one'

'okay, give me a minute KITT I'll send you the next block, this one is a bit bigger though so take your time going through it'

Pushing her tools to a side Sarah began splitting the new block of information from the massive package that was all the memories and data KITT previously had, it took the supercomputer a good little while to set everything properly but once that was done Sarah gave the AI the new block and moved on to keep working on fixing another set of equipment.

Kitt drove inside the SSC's main chamber and parked himself on the gimbal, both his passengers climbed out and while Michael simply moved over to sit on the couch on the side of the room Mike went off and disappeared into one of the hallways; just in case Kitt made sure to keep an eye on him until he realized that he had simply just gone over to his pod, glad that he wouldn't need to keep a constant eye on the man at least for the time being he took this free time to silently keep a close eye on the younger AI.

From what he could tell after watching his movement for about an hour KITT seemed to be fully absorbed by the data he was going over, the memories and the intricate data that came with them regarding his now-missing sensors and other systems had taken over just about every single second from the AI's time and he wondered not for the first time what was going through that processor of his as he watched what for all intents of purposes was himself going out and doing all kinds of things in a body that he still didn't recognize as his own with people that he barely knew.

Kitt could only guess but if he really had to try he would say that the AI was confused in more ways that one could count, he knew for a fact that all the questions he had would be eventually answered as he continued to watch and immerse himself into the data he was being provided with but until then he couldn't even fathom the urge to get answers as only more and more questions aroused with each set of memories he went through. This was all a temporal thing though, KITT eventually would reach a point in which the questions would start being answered and hopefully by the time he went half way through the data he would have more answers than questions.

what little was left of that day went by without much change as everyone kept doing their respective tasks, work still went by well into the night before the group finally called it a night and went to their pods to get some rest, fully aware that pulling up all-nighters constantly on a project that would more than likely take at least two months to see completed was not efficient or healthy for any of them.

This was going to be a long, arduous path to walk in order to try and recover as much of KITT as they could, the method of giving the AI chunks of information and allow him to really take it in was also in hopes that he would form some sort of bond with them that could at least be somewhat similar to the one he had before so that at least it would maybe not be as rough a change when KITT was fully back.

The following couple days went by in pretty much the same routine and it would more than likely remain that way for the remainder of that week, Sarah was currently taking a break from her constant work while grabbing something to eat from the dining area, she had been deep in thought before the ringing from her phone abruptly pulled her out; looking at the caller ID she answered.

"Hi Carrie"

"Hey, how are things going back there?"

"Slow but we're getting there since we're pretty much working from dusk to dawn every day"

"How's Mike?"

"I haven't seen much change from him to be honest, guess this got to him pretty bad"

"well I'm not surprised all things considered. I have some news you might like though"

"What's that?"

"I think one of our scouts found another body suitable to be a good replacement"

"Already?"

"We've got quite a few people working on this around the clock so it wasn't easy but the guy that found it took off earlier to have a look at the car in person"

"That's great, where did you find it?"

"Far up north near Detroit, from the looks of it the guy bought the car to add to his personal collection so it's only been driven the distance between the dealership and the guy's house. What's even better is that since he seems to really care about his cars they're all kept in the best condition possible so this I think will be the closest we'll get to getting one from the factory"

"But if it's there as a part of a collection then how come it's for sale?"

"Well you see that's where we might have a problem, the car is not exactly for sale we just saw it in the background of one of the collector's pictures so we sent our guy there to try and bargain for it. We'll need to have some luck to convince him but maybe we can use some persuasion if he's really stubborn"

"Just don't go threatening people, I'd rather wait and see if another one pops out"

"Don't worry, everyone wants something more than anything in the world and that's the route we're gonna be going for if all else fails"

"Thanks Carrie, you have no idea how much we all appreciate this"

"Don't even worry about it, it's the least we can do after everything that happened"

"Still, I need to get back to work now but thanks for the news, please keep me updated on it if you can to see what work can we push over to begin working on the car"

"Will do, anything else you could need? materials, electronics, tools or any other of the sort?"

"I would have to check, if anything I think it would be things to adapt the car more than anything but I can't tell you from the top of my head right now"

"Well you go check and make a list then send that to me, I mean it"

with an honest smile on her face Sarah thanked her again before they each said their good-byes, taking Carrie's words to heart Sarah went out to start making a list of all the things she would be needing to adapt the car to the AI, that done she moved on to check what things they had on hand and based that she would determine what was missing; double-checking the list more than once to be sure she hadn't miss a thing she sent the FBI agent the list just over an hour after their talk, later that same day she got the reply from her saying that the list had been approved by the board and they were going to start gathering everything she had requested.

At that moment a big weight was lifted from her shoulders as the worry of wasting time while waiting for things to arrive or searching for specific equipment disappeared, she had the FBI working on that and the car while they focused here on software and specific hardware components that only they could fix or remake with what was left over in the storage floor from the SSC's active days; part of her was actually moved to see the effort that everyone was pulling to see this through and ultimately help KITT, what was first an impossible task had now turned to be slightly within the grasp of reality.

Mike opened his eyes in what had been the third consecutive day where he had been woken up in the middle of the night by no apparent reason, he sat up in the bed and looked around at the mess of turned over chairs and other furniture that was his pod; rubbing his eyes to get rid of the grogyness of sleep he stood up and ran a hand through his hair with a deep breath, leaving his pod he walked through the cool underground base until he reached one of the elevators that took him to one of the side exits of the hangar. The elevator took him up through most of the depth of the base but once it reached the top he still had to go through a set of stairs that ended on a small empty room with one other door that he opened to be received by the brisk night air of the desert.

Taking in the mostly dark surroundings he closed the door behind him and began walking over to the side of the hangar where he went through yet another door that finally leaded to the outside world where the lighter blues of the horizon signaled that sunrise was quickly approaching; he slightly shivered at the feeling of the cold concrete against his bare feet but it was a feeling he was able to brush away quickly before walking slightly to a side and sitting down on the floor with his back resting against the side of the large building.

Unlike the other nights that he had been woken up like this no other night did he decide to get out of the SSC but for some reason he felt like maybe just resting out like this before the temperature started climbing to the normal heat of the desert could maybe bring him some of the peace he had been missing for the past three weeks, damn had it really been that long already? he took a deep breath as he turned his gaze to the sky while thinking back to everything that had happened lately, the routines of every day were so much like each other that he found it hard to tell one day apart from the next so to say that he didn't even know what day it was exactly would've been pretty much correct.

opening his eyes to see the few stars that still shone over the lightened sky he let his thoughts wander over to the uncertain future they were all facing, particularly his mind was occupied with KITT's future after finally understanding the full depth and magnitude of the problem that was his neural net resetting all the way back to pretty much his very beginnings.

He closed his eyes again and thought back to one of his last conversations with the AI back before the battle against Daniel really began, the car's words now having a stronger impact than before as he clearly heard his voice in his mind almost as if KITT was right there with him again: '- If the worst case scenario does play out I will put my 'life' so to speak, over yours'

Maybe he didn't realize that then or he was just imagining things in his tired state but hearing that back in his head he could've sworn that there was the slightest hint of apprehension coming from the AI while at the same time showing an even greater feeling that Mike could only try and describe as the same fire he himself felt when particularly determined to do something of just when the drive of a mission or situation pushed him to his limit.

Crossing his arms in an attempt to shield himself from the cool wind he couldn't help but feel utterly alone; he had his friends down below as well as his father and the Knight Two Thousand...so why was he feeling like this?

He gave this round sin his mind as he tried to figure out what was wrong with him until he finally realized there had been one other moment where he had felt like this before, it had been almost two years since but he knew for a fact that he had felt this way back when his mother had died; had the AI really evolved that much to make him practically human in his mind to the point that he felt like he had lost another family member? then there was the simple fact that KITT wasn't really dead...right? I mean he was still active down there and working on being fixed and recovering everything he had lost after the battle but at the same time that AI was not the same AI that it was before all this happened, to an extent Mike felt like he had truly lost his partner but another part of him knew that he hadn't.

Struggling to calm his confused mind he was finally distracted enough when a cool breeze blew by him and a chill went up his spine as the wind rustled the loose pants and shirt he wore to sleep; Leaving his head leaning back with eyes closed he simply let time go by while somewhat hyper-aware of every sound around him, anything from the wind rustling the leaves on a small patch of brush that had made its way out through the concrete over the course of the years since the building was first built all the way to the passing plane miles above him, time lost pretty much all meaning at this point and before he knew it he was opening his eyes when the first rays of the sun made their way over the horizon and to his face.

covering the sun from his face his attention then shifted over to his right where off in the distance he was able to hear the faded rumble of a truck's engine...actually, make that two trucks...wait were there three of them?

Letting curiosity get the best of him he stood up and walked back inside the hangar through the side door where to his surprise he found pretty much everyone, including the AI, right outside of the doors to the entry tunnel. Walking over to them he was greeted by his friends and was about to ask what everyone was doing outside so early until he turned around to the partially open doors of the hangar where three distinctively large trucks were making their way over, still thoroughly confused he turned to Sarah then

"What is going on here Sarah?"

"We're getting the help from the FBI that was promised"

"Help? what did you ask of them that needed three full size semis?"

"Honestly we didn't ask for much but there were some particular things that were a bit too big and I guess they couldn't fit everything in one truck"

the two stopped their conversation when the three trucks reached them and began turning to park with the rear end facing the entrance to the underground base; two people emerged from each of the cabins and Sarah greeted them quickly before they moved on to reveal the contents of the trucks.

Going in order from what her list had said the first stuck had mostly the raw materials that would be needed to reinforce the car's body, most of the panels in the body would either have to be replaced with new ones made out of a different aloy that they would need to make down in the lower level labs and specialized areas with the raw metal sheets they were being provided with now, there was also a good amount of carbon fiber parts that had already been cut to specifications given before to reinforce and replace other sections of the car's internal structure to try and compensate for the excess weight that would be added once all the extras that allowed an AI to take residence in the car as well as the modifications to the engine that would give it the extra power and resistance it needed were finished. If everything did go according to plan and Sarah's calculations had been correct the new modifications to the external part of the body would not only alleviate some of the load from the Nano-skin when it came to taking damage but also make the car on its own two times stronger than it was before.

The tech climbed up on the truck and went over everything to make sure nothing was missing from there and once she gave the guys the all clear they began unloading while Billy and Michael began loading the heavier things in the Trans am to move them to the separate bay where Billy and Zoe had worked before without breaking their backs.

Zoe took charge of inspecting the second truck where medium size boxes filled it all the way to the back, opening some of them she was glad to see countless electronics and neatly packed cables of mostly minuscule diameter; satisfied with her inspection she began helping unloading the truck and leaving everything in small stacks next to the truck.

Sarah watched as everything was being unloaded and saw Mike organizing some of the boxes that Zoe was getting out of the second truck, one of the drivers then approached her as he explained something that she simply nodded to before making her way to the last truck; calling Mike over to her as the rear doors of the last truck were unlocked she watched as the man's expression immediately changed upon seeing the content inside: safely strapped to the truck and half covered with a blue tarp was the unmistakable shape of a jet black Shelby GT500 KR Mustang with double matte black racing stripes. Sarah gave the man a slap on the back of the head to get him out of the apparent state of shock he had fallen in just then, rubbing the back of his head after the hit he simply kept his eyes fixed on the car in front of him while speaking.

"Why did you do that for?"

"Your mouth was wide open, you wanted to eat a fly or something Mike?"

"No but...how did you even get your hands on this?"

"It was all the FBI's doing, I got some intel last week from Carrie when they first found it, apparently their attempted buyout from that collector went better than they had expected"

"Wait they got this car from a collector?"

"it's pretty much as new as we'll ever get considering they're out of production now, the thing has less than thirty miles on it but the engine was checked and kept up perfectly since it reached the warehouse where the guy had all his cars for show"

"I didn't think a collector would sell a car just like that"

"Well let's just say that persuasion and perseveration always find a way" before Mike could ask any more questions Sarah moved over to climb the open doors of the last truck, walking around the car she walked over to the farthest part of the trailer where stacks of boxes occupied the remaining space; opening a few of them she saw various engine parts, components and gear that she would be needing to give the car's stock engine the power it would be needing to properly move and resist the extra demand that the AI would be requiring as well as using some of the raw materials in the first truck to replace some parts with new ones that were sure to hold much more stress and heat than any regular engine.

After all the trucks were fully unloaded Sarah helped unhook the car from inside the last truck and climbed in, turning the key to the ignition she was welcomed by the healthy roar of the high powered engine as it slowly faded down to an idle rumble while letting the car slowly carry itself down the ramp and out of the truck; getting out of the car she thanked the drivers before they all got back in their trucks and took off.

Leaving the Mustang parked just outside the tunnel down everyone focused in moving everything to the areas where it would be needed: Billy and Michael worked on taking the larger and heavier raw materials down the back cargo elevator and over to the area where they would be processed while Sarah, Zoe and Mike moved boxes of electronic equipment and car parts over to the larger side room where they would be modifying the car's body as they got the parts ready.

Mike got back out to pick up another set of boxes to move over but he was distracted by the car currently parked in front of him, the Mustang was a mirror image of KITT except for the fact that the area on the hood where the scanner normally sat was still occupied by the stock covers on the air intake that helped cool the performance engine inside.

Taking a walk around the car he opened the door and sat back on the driver's seat, despite being in storage for all of its life everything was in perfect condition and even still retained that intoxicating new car smell; placing his hands on the steering wheel with closed eyes he felt a comforting familiar feeling as he was thrown back to a place he hadn't realized he had missed this much, the only thing keeping him from truly feeling at home was the control panel and radio where normally the AI's voice modulator sat. taking a deep breath he climbed out and opened his eyes to see Sarah standing in front of the car with crossed arms, closing the door he walked over to keep on moving boxes before giving the woman a chance to even begin to tell him to stop slacking off yet to his surprise she stopped him mid-step and spoke with a sincere voice.

"Don't worry Mike, we're getting him back and better than you could ever imagine, that's a promise"

nodding to her with silent thanks he continued moving everything around and about two hours later the hangar was fully cleared and all the tools, equipment and materials received were exactly where they needed to be to allow the small team to start working; Billy, Zoe and Michael were going to all work on getting the proper mixture of the raw metals they had received down in a specialized floor where they could work around the raw ingots and smelt new ones consisting of the alloy Sarah had come up with before extending it all on a large sheet that they would be able to later cut on a different floor to the shapes and volumes necessary to replicate all of the car's panels; speaking of said thing 8 floors above them Mike was working on removing pretty much all of the outer body of the car while Sarah was down in the main chamber working with the Knight Two Thousand on trying to replicate some of the cable network on KITT based on the sections that the two other techs had been able to recover from the original shell.

It had taken the man four full days of working non-stop and only taking breaks to eat whenever food was brought up and getting some sleep in the makeshift bed he had made up the first night, he had made it a challenge to himself not to go back down and get distracted until he had finished practically dismantling the car completely to make sure that the team as a whole didn't fall behind on starting to fit the car with the new panels and equipment. Taking a few steps back in the large room to admire his work he found himself face to face with a shape he no longer recognized as the gleaming Mustang he saw being driven out of the truck, he was face to face with the aluminium frame of the car hanging on a lift with nothing but the interior's bare bones of carpeting while all around he had laid and organized the body panels, electronic components and cables and even the seats were resting against the wall on the far end of the room; hanging from another set of smaller lifts that hung from the roof and were able to be moved around through a pulley system were also the pretty much brand new engine and transmission systems just waiting to get the attention needed to get them up to match what would be the set standards for the AI that would be controlling them. Stretching his back and leaving the tool he had been using last back in place he began making his way down to the main chamber for the first time in the last four days, deciding to walk down the entry tunnel he was surprised when around the slight bend that leaded down to the entry doors he saw Sarah halfway into the decontamination chamber as she laid sections of impossibly thin cables that were meshed together in an intricate and tight netting pattern while interconnected via specific ports to other similar sections that were strewn around the whole area of the main chamber around the Trans am as it remained parked on the gimbal.

Waiting for the tech to stand up from her work to face him he couldn't help but look around at her handiwork as he spoke "So...I'm afraid to even ask what all this mess is about"

"Mess? there is no mess, all these cables are actually perfectly organized in a way that I'm sure there will be no problem when we set them up in the car"

"How can you be so sure? you don't even have the car here to measure anything"

"The Two Thousand has been of great help for that, he created a simple 3D wireframe render of the Mustang upstairs and overlapped a theoretical netting over the areas that need it before telling me how to organize the sections to fit exactly in the way he calculated"

Walking around the delicate electronic nets of exposed cables to be able to stand in the main room rather than inside the entry tunnel he looked around and managed to make out sections out of the whole interconnected system; on the main screen was the render Sarah had mentioned with a specific area around the back of car near the rear bumper highlighted, he guessed that it was the area Sarah was currently working on behind him "So what will this be all for? I mean yeah it looks impressive and considering you've been at it since we received the material I can only guess that it's way more complex than it looks"

walking over to him as she finished making the last connections between sections she spoke with crossed arms "I showed you this before not too long ago, it looked different then because it was already in place inside KITT and now we're using a slightly better way of interconnecting everything to make it more efficient and less of a mess to work around if needed be" She looked at the man in hopes of catching a glimpse of realization in his face but when none came she just continued to tell him exactly what it was "If you think back to when we were fixing KITT before when getting him updated on the backup shell you'll remember that behind the body panels there was this river of cables and other tiny components, do you remember what I told you what that was for?"

Turning to look suddenly at the wireframe on the big screen and then to the whole place around him he realized that what he was looking at was what would eventually become an equivalent of a nervous system for the AI, as Sarah had said he had seen this before and was amazed to learn what it did but now as he saw the whole thing specifically set around the floor of the main chamber and just perfectly connected to itself he realized that probably if he were to look at it all directly from above he would be able to make out certain shapes that in the end would look like someone had taken the car and just unfolded it into a flat layout like some sort of origami figure; to say that he was surprised when he learned that Sarah had single-handedly manually attached and made the endless nets of cables that were probably a millimeter or two in diameter would've been one hell of an understatement.

Walking carefully over to the front of the room he simply looked around at the intricate layout and to the AI sitting in the middle of it all.

"So you told her where to lay everything to make things easier huh?"

the AI perked up then when he realized that the man was speaking to him, looking away from his research he spoke honestly "The only thing I did was show her the layout you see on the screen, she took the job of intertwining the delicate cables into the specific net pattern you see for each section before plugging the ends of it on the adapter that would be connected to another section of the net as well as to the inner system that manages this whole thing"

"Damn, and I thought I had it rough up there"

"You should see the others"

"where are they even?"

"Still downstairs, all the necessary panels have been measured and modeled, they're just in the process of being cut to specification so they can begin the more detailed work of giving it the finish it needs around the edges by hand"

"Well I'm done up there, left pretty much just the internal structure of the car so it's ready to get the upgrades. I'll go down and see if I can help with anything"

As everyone worked around the clock to keep the progress constant the days started to blur and meld together in some sort of cycle in which the only thing that changed was the tasks everyone was doing; after finishing some tests on what now was the fully completed sensory system that went directly under the car's body panels Sarah and Zoe began separating the distinctive sections of netting and began moving everything to the room upstairs where the car, or more like what once had been a car, now laid pieced apart in an organized mess. seeing as the room would not be big enough to accomodate all the sections of netting with the equipment and parts that were already there and considering that there were still pieces missing to come up from the workbay on the lower levels where all the custom body panels had been forged and polished the two decided to lay out a large tarp on the floor just outside the room out in the open space of the hangar where they accommodated everything before bringing another tarp to cover the full thing and protect the delicate cables.

Sarah sat in her office in front of her computer, staring blankly at it after just being on the phone with Carrie, she had been glad to inform her that the reparations on the AI were going according to plan and maybe the car would be fully equipped and functional enough to receive the AI again...speaking of the AI actually, KITT had gone through about seven blocks of information in the span of just over five weeks and the tech knew that by now he was well into the time span when the SSC and Knight Research were at its peak, he had enough memories back to allow her and the others to have some semblance of a proper conversation which they made sure to do regularly in order to try and reestablish the bond they had with the AI before. Normally they would all just wait for the neural net to be restored as well but after having a very in-depth conversation about the topic with the Knight Two thousand to know what his three weeks worth or research had come up with she couldn't help but feel somewhat disheartened to know that the chances of restoring the neural net's integrated learning and behaviour algorithm were close to none, she had been dreading the moment but this time she had been the one to tell Mike about it but to her surprise the man's reaction was barely over a slight acknowledgement that, when she questioned him, she realized that Mike had already taken that possibility as a reality from the very beginning.

As she leaned back in the office chair she couldn't help but think back and then realize that out of the four of them Mike had been probably the one that had talked to the AI the least, this bothered her a bit since he should've been the one to be with KITT the most all things considered; he was the driver and like before he should be the one to have the strongest bond to the car over the rest of them but from what she could tell the situation made it seem like it was the complete opposite. Making a mental note to ask Mike about it she stood up and began walking off and out of the office and making her way all the way up to the room where now pretty much everyone was working around the car.

Greeting the AI as she walked past the Trans am parked outside Sarah entered the brightly lit room where she saw Mike and Billy working on adding back some of the interior parts where the necessary wiring and equipment had been installed already, on the farthest side of the room Zoe sat on the floor surrounded my various engine parts and boxes as she worked on replacing some of the stock parts of the engine with either new ones they had ordered or custom ones made from a different alloy made and molded downstairs to allow the engine in general to have a way higher tolerance rate than pretty much any other engine in order to be able to resist the extra strain that the AI could put on it if a situation called for it.

Moving around the car and rearranging some of the larger components she decided to start focusing on finishing certain areas fully so they could begin placing back the body panels with their respective netting to start checking off tasks; with this idea in mind Sarah left once again to start searching for certain things down on the storage floors that she realized just now they had all forgotten about and was one of the key ingredients in making everything work properly.

When night time finally came everyone left the upper room and headed down to get some rest for the night before getting back to work early the following morning, staying to talk for a while longer in the main chamber Billy and Zoe eventually just left for their pods while Mike remained there for a little while simply staring into the void deeply lost in thought; with a sight the man stood up from the couch and went over to the computers on the main desk where he pulled a chair over and sat at the one where the AI's core was plugged in, opening the simple textbox he began typing out in the keyboard.

"KITT it's Mike, you busy?"

it took the AI a few seconds to push over his work over the files and move over to respond to the call but he quickly switched his full attention to the man writing to him "I am still working on reviewing the files and data Sarah gave me yesterday but I am available"

"How are you doing with that?"

"It has been interesting to say the least, part of my processor still doesn't know how to process this information properly knowing that all these files are essentially mine while at the same time they are not, then there is the fact that even though I am just about half way through the files from what Sarah told me there are times in which there are gaps in between memories that I do not know how to properly address"

thinking back Mike couldn't help but feel like he knew exactly how the AI felt, he had that same problem with the memories from when he had been back in the army around the times of the first KARR incident "Yeah, I know how you feel there. This is the best we could do though so you'll have to forgive us for that"

"There is nothing to ask forgiveness for, the fact alone that everyone is going through this much trouble just to recover what was lost in that battle is more than I could ever ask for"

"Wait, you know about the battle then?"

"Sarah has explained to me before what happened in a summarized fashion, I'll have to wait to get to those particular memories to really know what happened in detail but at least I know what was it that happened that ended with me being here rather than in the car"

"Do you miss it?"

"Miss what?"

"Being in the car, that freedom of being able to control just about everything about yourself"

"I do not know, right now I have no previous experiences from being in the car so I cannot tell what the difference is between being in there and in here"

"Not even from the files you're reviewing?"

"The memory files come with packages of metadata that I have been analyzing in detail but most of the information on them comes with systems that I am unfamiliar with, I believe that is because the programs I need to process that data properly I will receive until I get placed back in the car body"

Mike couldn't help but resent the formality that the AI had been using to communicate with him, at this stage it was unfamiliar to see him using such language after he had evolved into a more familiar way of talking that resembled more the speech of a polite person rather than a technical computer like it was right now. Brushing the feeling aside he shook it off and simply continued talking to the AI for a little while longer, mainly asking questions about what he had discovered so far in his research and just being there to answer any other questions the AI could have.

The head tech had began making her way back up later that night after gathering everything she needed and dropping it on a lab where she would be able to work with it, she needed to walk back around the main chamber to get to her pod but as she walked by she heard distant typing that peaked her curiosity since by now everyone had already probably gone to their pods to sleep. Silently peeking through a corner she was surprised to see Mike sitting on the desk occasionally typing, she guessed that he was talking to the AI which made her wonder if this was why she hadn't seen him speaking to KITT so far; assuming that this was the case the more she thought about it the more she thought it was the more likely case scenario considering that on most of the day the man was working on the car upstair or something of that same nature.

Being careful of not being seen she walked around the room and went out through the hallway that would take her to her pod, her previous worries of Mike not working on recovering his bond to KITT gone in their entirety.


	13. Chapter 13

**Sorry this took so long to finish, got caught up with some irl issues but enjoy a long one for this one**

The following Morning Sarah was the first one to get up and start working, she made a quick stop to check over KITT and to her luck the AI had just finished with the last block of information she had give him; pulling out the next block she gave it to him and then headed down to the lab where she had left the equipment and materials the previous night.

Setting a large empty bucket aside she opened one that was filled halfway with some sort of clear liquid, dragging over a dark plastic bag she opened one of the corners and began pouring in the content in the half-filled bucket; the bag's content would easily appear like some very fine gray-ish sand to the untrained eye, the fine powder was in reality ground up bits of copper, aluminum, zinc and primarily silver so small that it was near impossible to distinguish one grain from another one.

Once the bag had been fully emptied out she grabbed a long wooden stick and began moving around the mixture to even out the proportions of the liquid and the metal dust before leaving the stick on a table and grabbing a large hand mixer similar to those used to mix paint in the bucket and plugging it in; turning on the mixer as she lowered it into the now almost full bucket she slowly moved it around and watched as everything got mixed together in a glimmering semi-translucent liquid. She was glad that she had been present the first time her father had done this otherwise she would've either forgotten about it entirely or lost in the files of the computer back at her home looking for how to prepare the mixture.

Twenty minutes of mixing later she pulled out the mixer out of the bucket which had now turned from a semi-translucent silver liquid leaning more towards being almost clear with a pearl-metallic sheen when looked at from an angle where the light hit it just right. covering the bucket with its plastic cap she managed to carry it on top of a small cart where she had brought along all the materials and began heading back out. When entering the main chamber of the SSC she found herself pushing the cart by the front end of the now curious Trans am

"Good morning Sarah"

"Morning Kitt"

"Could I ask what are you carrying there?"

stopping at the edge of the open entry doors she half leaned on the cart as she spoke "I was working on getting this ready a little bit ago, this is the mixture that needs to be sprayed on the underside of each body panel where the cable netting will go"

"And what is its purpose?"

"Basically it'll improve the conductivity of the whole circuit and with the new netting design it should also increase the accuracy of the feeling so all in all without this the system would be somewhat lacking to say the least"

"I see...do you mind me asking what is it made out of?"

"it's based on a clear chemical mixture that will strengthen the inside of the panels themselves mixed with a metallic dust composed of various hyperconductive metals to aid to the conductivity factor. I'll be taking this out to the room where we're going to be working and just set up the spray gun to use it once the mix has settled"

The AI did not bother commenting after that as the woman simply continued to push the small cart up the ramp as he processed the ingenuity of using such mixture for this purpose.

Like it had been happening for the last couple weeks the small team worked around the clock to get everything set, with the specialized cover that went on the inside sections of the body panels of the car ready and being applied as soon as each piece had its respective netting placed and secured progress had turned into an organized chain of tasks that started with the polishing of the rough metal panels amd making sure the edges were smooth, then setting up the specialized netting on the inside area of the specialized metal panels or the pre-cut carbon fiber ones and finally ending with spraying them completely with the special coating that not only made sure that the netting would stay in place but also allow for better conductivity throughout the system via an easier way to transmit the electrical impulse that the cables would emit to mimic a touch or an impact on the car's surface that together with the new net pattern Sarah calculated that the system as a whole would be twice as efficient and precise.

The following couple weeks went on in a rushed fashion as the car began coming back together again and just about two months after the incident the Mustang was pieced back together and only the final touches were missing, the fact that it had only taken the team two months to basically complete the rebuilding of the AI was a record breaking accomplishment on it's own.

It was late at night and Sarah was the only one remaining at the working bay where they had the car, the immediate area around it had been sealed off with a makeshift tent and she was wearing a full body suit as she pushed around some scattered things while walking around the car with a spray gun; she checked the covers around the car's wheels, windows, grille and lights one last time before reaching outside the tent and grabbing a small cable with a clip on the end that she clipped onto a part of the undercarriage on the back of the car. Fiddling with the settings on the gun she then started her work.

The head tech moved around slowly as she sprayed the clear liquid on the car with slow back and forth motions of her hand across the jet black surface, within the first couple seconds of the liquid being sprayed the surface seemed to shimmer and flow constantly, an hour later this effect was happening all over the car and after placing down the spray gun the woman walked around the car and thoroughly checked that this shimmering effect was really covering every area of the surface of the car; the sound of a door opening and closing distracted her from her current task and she stood up straight to try and look over at the entrance of the tent where Mike was pulling apart the flaps to enter.

Mike Stood up from his chair as he stretched after talking to the AI for a while, KITT had finished going over all of his previous memories and was pretty much back to how he was before when it comes to all the information, he could talk to the AI normally again with the exception that he still had that feeling on the back of his head every time they talked; he had tried to look past it from the start but the slight coldness that came with his awers made part of him think that this wasn't KITT...maybe it was just his mind playing tricks on him caused by the fact that his only way of communication with him was through the input textbox.

Walking around the resting form of the Knight Two Thousand he went up the entry tunnel and out to the hangar, he stopped there for a while and simply looked around, his eyes fell back to where they had moved the mangled shell of Daniel's AI over to a side; he walked over as he ignored the drone of the spray gun coming from the workbay and went straight for the car. He stopped in front of what once had been KITT's original shell, the car where the two had first met and went through more hardships and good times than one could count throughout the time they had worked together; he knew the difference between the AI and the car itself and to a point they could be seen as different entities but right now he couldn't help but get lost in thought as he kept his eyes on the half-torn shell, the car in front of him had been like a home at certain times, he had slept, ate and laughed, experienced sadness, anger, worry, peace and just straight out met what in essence was a friend that he would even dare now call even family.

The sudden silence that came when the drone of the spray gun had stopped pulled him out of his train of thought, turning to look over at the workbay he began walking over and inside where he had to pull open the flaps of the makeshift tent that had been set, Sarah was standing across from him on a full body overall with protective goggles, mask and hood on for protection; his attention then shifted to what was happening directly in front of him on the car.

Mike found himself unable to take his eyes off of the Mustang'´s body as it's uncovered surface shimmered and rippled to life like something straight out of a movie, Sarah walked around the car as she removed her hood and mask before addressing the man in his shocked state

"So, before you ask, this is what the Nano-skin looks like when it's freshly applied so don't you dare touch the car otherwise not only will you ruin the cover but also get quite the electric shock"

Walking around the car he managed to get himself to speak "Why is it moving though? also why have I never seen this?"

"Well right now I have an electric current running through the car that allowed the Nanobots to adhere to the car's surface properly once being sprayed, it's moving because of that same electricity so once I unplug it the protective cover will settle in place and we just have to let it set for a good couple hours"

"I never knew that it would look like this when first applied though, it's amazing"

Sarah walked over to the rear end of the car and leaned down where she pulled out the clip she had connected before, the moment she did so the simering around the car stopped completely and it once again looked like a regular car's surface with the exception that the body now had a slightly more metallic and almost pearlescent finish.

Mike instantly turned to look at her when the shimmering stopped with a slightly disappointed face to which she only shrugged and began taking off the overall to stay in her normal clothes. slightly organizing the area as much as possible the two then headed back out and down to the main chamber before each heading to their pods to get some sleep for the remainder of the night.

The following morning the team gave themselves the luxury of waking up later than they had been since starting the repairs simply because the Nano-skin needed to try off completely before they could continue working on installing the auxiliary transformation panels under the car's surface as well as some other equipment and components plus making a few tests and simulations to set the car's tuning setup at the optimal standards that would have the better power output with the new parts they were still going to install.

Eventually in the later hours of the morning everyone finally showed up at the main chamber and then proceeded to continue their work on the car, since most of the heavy work had already been done and most of the things missing were done through coding the connection between electronic components and installing some remaining parts that left both Knights with nothing to do but wait it out, at least they hoped that by the end of the day or early tomorrow the car would be fully completed and ready to just receive the host AI.

The following morning everyone was up and about early, Sarah had been the first to arrive at the main chamber and with some help from the Two Thousand they were finishing some of the last integration codes needed to be able to allow KITT to go in the Mustang body, on the other hand the AI was simply standing by and waiting for the new channel that would take him to the computer inside the car before Sarah could unplug his core from the stationary computers and put it back in place on the engine compartment; over the course of the last week Michael had taken the job to restore the physical core from the damage it had taken back on the attack and it had been a full week of scraping, refining and polishing the metal casing to get it back in shape after some of the internal components had been replaced so that now, after a new paint cover along with some of the liquid used on the inside of the car's body panels, the core was not only back looking like brand new, but with the extra protection provided by the metal dust mix it has been strengthened in hopes of preventing any damage like this ever happening again.

a couple hours later and the three techs were walking around the Mustang with tablets and cables in hand, from one of the hallways Mike came over pushing a cart carrying a large piece of tech that he had figured out as soon as Sarah had sent him to pick up that it was the AI's scanner; the thing was awfully complex just in appearance, behind the apparently simples scanner laid a body hidden under the hood with several ports that looked somewhat like those in HDMI cables as well as some others with shapes the man had no idea how to even begin to think of what they were for, to top it all off the whole thing was too heavy for him to carry so that's why the cart was needed. Once the techs had finished setting up the cables and connections that went into the scanner both Mike and Michael carried the thing to its resting place where Billy secured it with the specialized locks and hinges bolted into the car's very frame to make sure that nothing would be able to even loosen up the heavy piece of tech.

Once the Scanner was safely in place Sarah and Zoe did all the cablework and took a good hour to make sure everything was in place and nothing was missing so that no errors would come back once they allowed KITT to move into the car. Taking another set of cables Sarah plugged them in on the main computer where the core was plugged in, the other end of the large cables was plugged in somewhere in the engine compartment of the car and some others went from the computer all the way somewhere inside the cabin.

the team laid spread around the SSC's main chamber as they waited for the last minute checkups to be completed, Mike was especially anxious to see everything through, to see KITT back as his former self...or at least as much as it would get to be all things considered.

Finally Sarah climbed out from the inside of the car and headed to the mani computer where she looked over the results of the last diagnostics checkup she had done just now and was glad to see optimal results, with a relaxed breath she informed the others that everything was ready before opening the chat box she used to communicate with the AI and told him that he was clear to begin the download whenever he was ready.

The AI closed the chat box after Sarah had given him the all clear, the light blue ball of light hovered over to the newly opened port that would take him into the car's body; throwing himself fully into it he wa carried through and in a matter of seconds he found himself in a way larger open space than he had been in before, the dark surroundings were pulsating with low blue light in its idle state so it wasn't until the spark got closer to vehicle's larger main core that the dark void around him began glowing with a light blue glint and data streams began running and moving about the open space as he received more information and access to new systems for the first time. settling in the center of the open area he allowed the connections from new systems to reach him and after a few minutes the spark had grown considerably in size compared to how he was when he first entered.

KITT focused his attention on the visual and sensory programs while he let the rest of his system take care of reconnection to data banks and other secondary systems, his vision then changed from the shimmering blues of his environment to a completely dark void with a single message displaying 'System initializing' for a couple seconds before the darkness finally changed to the live image of what was directly in front of him along some standard gauges and analytics on the corners of his vision, slowly going through the startup messages he also began feeling the overwhelming awareness of his surroundings as the sensory systems finally powered up and finished their calibration.

As this was happening and his vision was still a dark void he felt the cool air of the underground base all around him, he felt his own weight being carried by the car's suspension and what he could only guess were cables coming out of his open hood and into the computer where he had been housed before.

Finally the startup messages cleared out and he was left with a clear view and looked over to the people standing in front of him; Thanks to all of his previous time going through memories and data he was able to recognize all of them though he couldn't help but think that they all looked awfully worn out and misaligned compared to the last recent set of memories he had from before the accident that caused all of this in the first place. Rather hesitant he found the access port in his communications systems where he had access to his voice modulator and tentatively spoke out.

"Sarah?"

A sigh of relief escaped the group when the AI finally spoke out, Sarah stood up from her chair at the desk and walked over to be in front of the Mustang "Hi KITT, how are you feeling?"

"I am still finishing setting all of my systems up but this does feel better than being on the computer"

"Great, I'll be moving your main core back into the car once you're done downloading completely so that we can unplug everything and leave you to finish setting everything up throughout the day"

"Thank you Sarah"

"Can you just check something for me?"

"What do you need?"

"Can you start your engine and rev it a few times? I want to make sure everything works since we had to basically rebuild a good part of it, check your head and tail lights as well as the hazards since we also had to move around some of the standard wiring of the car"

Without another word the AI complied and the deep roar of the new highly modified engine filled the room in a way that brought a smile to the faces of everyone around and the fact that the hood was still open only allowed the raw sound to freely fill the large area; the AI revved the engine a few times and with each one the high powered whine of the supercharger was clearly audible over the natural roar of the powerful engine.

over to the side Mike watched with a smile as the sound of the car filled the room, he had missed that sound more than he had realized and even though the sound itself was somewhat different the base essence was the same.

As the AI kept the engine idle for a bit he went through all the settings on his headlights, turning them on and off with his taillights and checking the brakes to see if those triggered the them as well, flashing the hazards a few times he concluded that everything was working properly and he moved over to shut down his engine while turning his attention to the people standing around the room, their tired expressions had changed to what he could only describe as relief, his focus was brought back when Mike walked over and greeted him, he greeted him back and the man went straight forwards and ask him if they could go out for a drive; before he could answer Sarah jumped at the idea with a rotund 'no' that had Mike visibly confused, the tech took a breath and dropped what she was doing before approaching the man.

"Sorry Mike, KITT can't go out yet, there are some things we're missing"

"What else is needed? he's fine you heard him revving the engine"

"That doesn't mean he's ready to go out, remember this isn't...exactly KITT. for him that was the first time he was able to feel the power of that engine and he has yet to try driving on his own and controlling the body , let alone drive at a high speed when I still have yet to figure out the same issue with the Nano-skin's code that I had before the battle"

"Wait I thought you had fixed that, wasn't that what you were doing back up on the room on the hangar that one night?"

"That night I only applied the skin and its protective cover, I have yet to work on coding the full thing and since the most recent file on that was what KITT and I were working on before you had to go out after Daniel went after your dad then that part is still broken and I have to continue to try and fix it so it works properly again"

"Well...what else is missing after that?"

"Well...that's our main problem and now Billy, Zoe and Kitt are going to be helping me with that, there are a few other integration codes needed but those shouldn't take too long but after that then comes the whole training element that KITT needs to go through before he can officially go out again like he used to"

"Training? I didn't see anything of the sort before after we first met and I agreed to work here and I'm pretty sure he was still being worked on then"

"Yes, he was but he had already been through the basic training with my dad before you two met, I was still working with my father when that happened so that'll tell you how much time before that was"

"Well...doesn't he have that information already since he has all those memories?"

"Well yeah but there is a big difference between that and actually having the knowledge you would have by doing it yourself. he needs to learn how the car moves, how the weight shifts when cornering a high speeds or drifting as well as learning how to control that weight shift when it happens. assuming he knows how to control the car right now just based on information he previously had would be the same as me saying you could fly a plane after reading about the theory of flight which, lets face it, you wouldn't be able to"

"Then how long until he's ready?"

"I say at the very least another week and a half, for now just be happy the transition from the computer back into the car went as smoothly as it did"

KITT Watched quietly as the pair argued in front of him, Sarah was right in everything she was saying, even though he had all his previous memories back and he had gone through those and the data that came with them in detail he had yet to really get a feel for his body, so far the only thing he had been able to gather from starting it up and revving it a few times to test was that it was indeed a more powerful engine than the one he had before which only meant that even the information he had would be somewhat useless.

The AI stood quietly in the room as the last few preparations were finished, Sarah was bent down over his engine compartment securing his core back in place inside a new protective casing, making sure everything was secured she stood back up straight and closed the car's hood. Taking a few steps back the tech looked at the Mustang as the scarlet red scanner tracked back and forth calmly, taking everything it she could hardly believe that they had managed to get KITT back to this state after still having the image of his destroyed shell surrounded by debris and fire after Daniel's attack.

Getting a tablet ready and dragging Billy and Zoe from their desks the three climbed inside the car and Sarah drove up the ramp and into the main open hangar, the sun coming through the small windows and seen outside through the partly open hangar doors displaying the heat coming from the midday sun. Getting out of the car the three settled around a set of large boxes where they placed laptops, tablets and other equipment before Sarah walked over to where the AI remained still

"We need to set a few things before we can link everything to your systems and we can get your live updates so while we do that just go ahead and get a feel of the car for yourself, drive around do whatever you want and I'll call you when everything's ready"

The AI responded by simply turning his engine back on and pulling away somewhat slowly from where he was parked, KITT had displayed on the corners of his vision several stats such as his speed, coordinates, fuel range and a small diagram of the car as seen from the top down with percentages next to each tire displaying the weight distribution of the car; as he slowly drove, picking up some more speed gradually and swerving around he analyzed and stored the data from the different weight changes throughout his four wheels accordingly to his movement until reaching the opposite side of the hangar where he slowed down and turned around to face the partly open doors.

After a second's hesitation he floored the accelerator and the car took off without any hint of wheelspin as the specialized tires gripped the ground as if they were covered in glue.

KITT watched as his speed began climbing at an impossible rate and the G-force pulling his own body back was easily overpowered by pure grip, he felt the increased pressure of the tires on the ground as the downforce product of his own speed kept incrementing with each passing second; approaching the open hangar doors the AI made some quick calculations based on his current data before proceeding to fully slam on the brakes and feel the immense weight shift to his front suspension and tires as he fought to bring his full carried momentum to a stop with screeching tires, the Mustang finally stopped completely with the front half of his hood being bathed by the sun as his nose stopped a little later than he had anticipated.

KITT remained stopped there for a few seconds as he fully processed all the data he had gathered from that quick stunt as well as what he was currently getting from his surroundings; He couldn't help but be somewhat entranced by the quality and quantity of the data he was getting just now by just standing still, the tingling sensation of the sun hitting his hood in contrast to the cool breeze coming from deep inside the hangar hitting his rear end, the nearly palpable heat waves from his now-cooling brakes after bringing the car to a full stop and the idling rumble of the engine as it settled back after being pushed in his pursue for speed.

Storing and analyzing all the new data he was getting he was pulled out from his trance by a distant voice, looking behind him he saw Sarah waving and signaling at him to go back so switching to reverse he turned around fully before starting his drive back at a more reasonable speed.

Mike trotted out of the open entry tunnel doors to see the three techs working around a couple laptops and tablets while off in the distance the Mustang was driving around aimlessly and swerving from side to side, not really knowing what was the head tech's plan he simply walked over to her and the other two to see for himself.

"Hey Sarah"

turning around from her work the woman turned to look at Mike "Hey, what are you doing out here?"

"Came to see what was going on, dad told me you three took KITT out here and I wanted to get a look at what you were going to be working on now"

"Well while we settle all the programs here I told KITT to have a drive around and start getting a feel for the car, judging by the fact that he is just swerving around like that I'm guessing he is quite literally testing the weight of the car"

"and once everything's settled what are you going to do?"

"I'll drive him around and do some slightly more aggressive maneuvers so that he gets that data and after I'll let him try them on his own but only after I see that he is comfortable with driving around more normally on his own"

"And how would you know when that happens?"

"There are certain cues that should be visible on the diagnostics that I will be seeing through my tablet as I sit inside the car, normally the chart that indicates the activity within the AI will begin settling down and not just peak at random times when certain action is performed; when it does settle down it tells me that KITT is comfortable with at least performing simple driving techniques and I can start to show him some more advanced maneuvers driving him myself before leaving him try on his own and repeat the process"

"You think he'll take long to get used to things again?"

"it's all very relative, I can't say anything for sure now"

Over from the side the sound of the Mustang's high powered engine and the characteristic whine of the supercharger bursting to life in an outburst of speed caused the four to look over towards the car just as it took off at an amazing rate from where it stood on the corner of the hangar heading towards the partly open hangar doors. Confusion was the first thing that hit Mike when the AI took off like that for no apparent reason, he turned to look at Sarah for an answer, her calm expression telling him that she knew what was happening.

"Why did he take off like that?"

"He's testing his speed and I'm sure he'll be testing braking next, he's going to attempt to make a calculation for his braking distance"

"you say attempt as if he wouldn't be able to know where he'll stop"

"Well...that's because he really doesn't, he just started gathering data for it all and he might not make the correct calculations. I believe that is why he's driving over to where the hangar doors are open, in case he doesn't stop in time the worse thing that could happen is that he goes past the mark and ends up outside while if he were to try it driving towards another part of the hangar he could end up crashing against some boxes or even a wall"

"makes sense I guess…" the squealing tires made the man turn back towards the car as he saw him sliding forwards as he attempted to brake and stop his carried momentum from driving at such a speed before; from his place he saw the AI's brake lights falter for a fraction of a second just about a second before he stopped completely.

"He miscalculated"

turning to face the tech next to him he looked over back at the car as he spoke "he stopped further away than he had anticipated didn't he?"

"You saw the brake lights?"

"Yeah, why did his brakes falter?"

"they faltered because the AI thought that was the distance where he would stop so when he didn't he had to intervene personally to stop" there were a few second of silence until a low beep from one of the laptops signaled that everything was connected and ready to start, taking a few steps up front she called out ot the AI a couple times while gesturing for him to return, the moment she saw his reverse lights lighting up she turned around and began linking her tablet to one of the laptops so that she had a way to go through data while she rode in KITT.

the Mustang stopped in front of the area where the techs had settled and Mike simply stood in place as he watched Billy Zoe and Sarah typing on their laptops and tablets, Sarah walked around the car and sat down on the driver's seat where she brought up the HUD and began typing in codes and passwords until she finally gained access to the AI's internal diagnostics scan where she linked her tablet and the computer so that they could all monitor different aspects of the AI as she took him around first before letting him drive on his own again.

It took the group a few minutes but eventually they had everything settled and they could finally start the training, Sarah left her tablet on the car's passenger side as she sat on the driver's seat and started the car, driving over to one of the sides of the hangr she explained to him how the training session would go; she was going to so some simple maneuvers around the hangar a couple of times first to allow him to get a feel for how the car's weight moved around as she drove, afterwards he would attempt to do the same maneuvers on his own a couple times until he felt comfortable with them so that they could move of to a different set of maneuvers and start working on combinations that would work better when out in the real world.

Billy and Zoe watched from a distance as Sarah performed some clean J-turns, 180s and 360s driving back and forth around the hangar, she repeated the sequence a couple times to give KITT a better margin of data to work with; stopping the car Sarah climbed out and got in the passenger's seat where she strapped herself in and began setting up the tablet to see the data that would be coming out of KITT's internal scans in a live feed, when everything was done a minute later she gave the AI the green light to go and he immediately took to repeating the set of maneuvers she had just performed.

The Mustang internally marked a path to follow overlapping his vision of the ground ahead of him in real time with certain cues of when to start braking and when to turn the wheel, he would do this the first time following Sarah's actions before attempting to do it on his own without the aid of his internal guide since he knew that out in a mission he wouldn't be able to mark a set path fast enough in case he needed to make split second decisions. taking off in reverse to set up the J-turn he used his guide to mimic the movements and gather as much data as possible about how the weight of the car shifted based on the amount of pressure applied to the suspension on each of his tires, he turned the wheel accordingly and braked to start the turn where he felt in detail how the weight shifted from being dragged backwards by his rear tires to making them slide and let his momentum push his front end around to face the opposite direction, picking up speed in that direction he made sure he had enough so that by the time he was halfway across the hangar he used the emergency brake to lock his rear tires as he slid back around in a well executed 180, immediately as he turned he pressed the accelerator again slightly over what he had intended to and ended up slightly fishtailing as he began picking up speed again to try and perform the 360 degree turn; he needed to make sure that he had enough speed to complete the drift, too much speed and he would end up understeering and swinging too wide to complete the turn, too little speed and he would end up stopping halfway through the turn oversteering...this was a balance that he was sure that it Sarah hadn't done it before it would've taken him a couple tries to get it perfectly.

The AI locked his rear wheels for a second to start the drift into the turn, letting his momentum carry him he adjusted halfway through the maneuver using the accelerator to stay in line and correct what little lack of speed he had entered with, adjusting the steering accordingly he recovered the speed he was missing and managed to complete the turn despite being somewhat messy in the middle of the maneuver. As he sat in place he waited a few seconds before repeating the set and reversing to start the J-turn, without using the guide he was still able to perform the first turn with relative ease but when doing the 180 he ended up slightly oversteering at the end which left him at a weird angle, adjusting quickly to start picking up speed for the last turn he made sure to go faster than the previous attempt; as his rear end began sliding the AI realized that this time he hadn't turned the wheel enough and found himself drifting over to a side, turning the wheel harder and tapping on the brake he slightly recovered from that mistake but now he found himself not having enough speed to complete the turn so rather than trying to correct that and more than likely ending up messing it up even further he let his momentum die and the the car stopped halfway into the maneuver.

At first Sarah was confused as to why KITT had done better in his first run than in the second one but she later guessed that he was more than likely using cues from her run to aid himself in getting the correct timing of things but he decided to do it without those for the second run, that in itself was a good thing but judging by the fact that he wasn't able to fully complete the 360 degree turn she guessed it would take him at least another two runs to get it right and maybe a couple more to perfect it and by then it would probably be better for her to wait out with Billy and Zoe since she was sure that by then all the turns would more than likely make her at least somewhat dizzy. she watched the data as the Mustang repeated the set a couple more times and saw how the graphs changed with each one, he was stable enough on the J-turn to do it at ease, his activity went up slightly in the middle of the 180 but it really spiked in comparison when it came to doing the full 360; she couldn't really blame him for it since it was harder to control the shift of the car's weight from one tire to the other as it was distributed unevenly between all four wheels when in the middle of the turn.

KITT took Sarah back to where Billy and Zoe were standing so that he could go back and repeat the set a few more times, he had done it with Sarah three times in which he had improved compared to his second run but there were still things that he knew he needed to polish to be satisfied enough with how he performed. Sarah watched KITT repeat the given set a few comple times and by then the data they were getting from him showed he had mastered with relative ease the J-turn and was at relative ease when doing the 180 but once again the last turn kept giving him problems, he had managed to complete the turn the last two tries but it was still somewhat dirty on the process and at the ending since his rear end kept sliding slightly over the given limit. he had to go at it another couple times until he was able to finally do it without overusing his systems.

returning to Sarah after she called him she climbed back on the driver's seat and drove back over to the open area of the hangar where she performed another series of slightly more complex maneuvers a couple times, the AI again took as much data as possible and stored it for later use, deciding that this time he wouldn't be using a guide to go on the first run and simply go ahead and figure out things on his own now that he had some more information as to how the weight shifted around the car based on the first set he had done.

As the day wore on Mike only left the hangar a few times to grab something to eat or drink throughout the day, he switched between simply standing up around where the techs were working, sitting on top of some random box of sorts or just straight out sitting on the floor; he watched as KITT progressed with each run on the different sets that Sarah gave him after completing one after the other until he eventually reached the point in which Sarah began mixing all of the maneuvers she had taught him so far in more complex combinations that got him to really start working out things on his own.

KITT having more and more information as to how the body moved and he himself gathering more experience with it as he finished each run he began noticing that even though some of the maneuvers were harder to execute it was taking him less tries to get them right before just moving on to practicing until he didn't find them hard at all; the training session of the day ended just as the sun began setting and he got all the techs and driver inside the car to drive them back, him actually doing the drive down this time.

Inside the team found themselves stumbling across some sort of conversation between the elder Knight and the Two Thousand, they stopped talking as soon as they entered and Michael's face showed something that the AI could only try and describe as being worried. everyone climbed down from the Mustang and the expression on the older man's face did not go unnoticed by them either, Mike became especially worried for reasons that he couldn't even begin to try and explain himself but there was something that was bothering him...he had a bad feeling about this. walking over to his father as he closed the car's door he immediately asked his father what was wrong to which he simply answered saying that something personal had come up and him and Kitt would be leaving early tomorrow morning to take care of it. Further questions from the younger Knight were only brushed aside and he was simply assured that there was nothing he needed to worry about even though at the back of his head he couldn't shake the uneasy feeling.

Fully knowing that he wouldn't be able to get anything out of his father he simply left the room, as he walked off he guessed by the Mustang's slow moving scanner that the car was probably getting ready to go into his recharge mode and to be honest he couldn't blame him after all the training he had done up at the hangar since the late hours of that same morning. Annoyed that he hadn't been able to figure anything out the man walked over to one of the hallways and headed to his pod, the others soon following and leaving the main chamber of the SSC only occupied by the two AIs.

The following morning Mike was the first one to get up strangely enough, he walked over to the main chamber and found only KITT staying there so he guessed that when his dad had said they would leave early in the morning he really meant early, walking over to the Mustang he guesses that because of the lack of a greeting from his that he was absorbed by something within his systems, after being placed back in just yesterday he did not find that hard to believe.

dragging a chair over from the desk to sit directly in front of the AI the noise served its purpose and made the car pay attention to what was happening directly in front of him

"Good morning Mike, you're up early"

"So are you, at what time did my dad leave?"

"He left at 7:30, it is now 8:47"

"Did he say anything as to where he was going or when would be he back?"

"He did not say anything as to where they were going but your father said that they would more that likely be back by tomorrow morning"

"I see...Did you happen to catch up on anything from their conversation last night?"

"I did not, but your father sure looked like something was bothering him"

"Glad to know I'm not the only one that felt that"

"It looks like whatever the reason is behind them leaving it either does not concern us and it really is just a personal problem or it is something that they do not want us knowing about"

"I mean if you put it like that I'm leaning more towards something personal though I don't get why he wouldn't want any of us knowing...on the other hand I don't see why my dad would want to hide anything from us"

"From what I have heard this would not be the first time he does that"

"What?"  
"Well when I was still housed on the computer a while back right after the incident he left to have a board meeting with the FBI in secret"

"Well yeah but he had a reason for that, a good one at that to be honest considering when I got there I was more than prepared to go at Daniel as he sat on that table"

"How do we know that is not the case right now?"

"So...you really think he is keeping something important from us?"

"More than that, I would even venture out to say that there is a possibility that whatever he is hiding might concern Daniel or something related to the incident and that is why he doesn't want any of us to know"

Mike remained quiet as he thought for a few second, KITT was right and it really bothered him now that he had this new thoughts in mind "KITT can you track the Knight Two thousand without him knowing?"

"Not at the moment, in fact I cannot track him at all since there are still some advanced systems that need some final adjustments"

internally cursing his powerlessness with the present situation Mike leaned back on his chair and looked up at the tall ceiling absentmindedly, he was really curious now and at the same time worried and even somewhat angry at his father for keeping important things from him...but what it they were just overthinking things too much? maybe it was really nothing and he was just making everything bigger than it really was...but what if he wasn't and there really was something wrong? danit why did things have to be so damn confusing?!

approaching footsteps dragged Mike out of his troubled thoughts and he turned over to look in their direction, sure enough Sarah and Zoe then walked into the rom, each with a coffee on hand and judging by what little he could hear since they entered they were discussing the remaining programs that needed fixing on KITT, mainly the troublesome Nano-skin code that had been giving Sarah issues since switching the AI to the backup shell.

with a sigh Mike sat up straight and greeted the two.

"Good morning ladies"

taking a sip from her coffee Sarah was the first to speak then "Surprised to see you up so early"

"Couldn't sleep too much last night, though I'd be better off down here than tossing around bed hopelessly"

"I see" taking a look around the room she set her cup on the desk next to her "looks like they're gone"

"Yup, off to god knows where without saying a word, hopefully they can explain what all this secrecy is all about when they come back tomorrow morning"

"So they're gone for the whole day huh"

"by what KITT says, I still don't trust it too much and I have my doubts"

"Relax Mike, it is just your father after all"

"Exactly, that's what worries me…"

Morning routines done and once Billy was awake and working the three techs sat on the main computers and began working on trying to fix the bothersome Nano-skin code, Sarah reamined working sitting on the AI's passenger seat with a laptop directly connected to an internal port to work directly on the live codes with KITT, the AI working with both her and the other two techs outside in attempting to rearrange the code in a way that would be back to normal working order. from what he could remember months earlier and before this mess began with the FBI he was able to freely transform into other vehicles and other variations of his Mustang shell, after the incident when Sarah had reinstalled him on the backup shell the code was on an older version that did not work due to conflicting codes and extensions from the other updated codes and programs, all in all it did not work as well as it had before and the team had been stuck ever since not being able to update it properly so that it worked normally. KITT recalled being able to somewhat improve how it worked by messing with the sequencing order of some parts of the code and using that as a base he decided to look through it all and search for possible areas that could work if switched positions with something else; he thought of this as a good enough strategy while leaving the techs to keep on writing the parts that were missing here and there and reconnecting via that same code other programs that still were not fully operational.

The first couple hours of the morning went by mostly uneventful and Mike in particular ended up most of said time walking around and looking at what his friends were doing, most of what he saw on the screens was and would remain a mystery to him since despite not being completely out of the loop when it came to these sort of things he was still miles away from being able to even think about trying to understand what's happening fully or even trying to help.

The hours flew by and the team only took a break earlier to grab something to eat before resuming their work, most of the unfinished programs were finished and had been successfully integrated with the rest of his programs but even though they now had all three techs and himself working on the Nano-skin code only little progress had been made, at the time he had switched three sections of code around and solved the efficiency issue they had before but in solving that now the main transformations were not working; basically he now had back his full defense but he was limited to being unable to transform to any of his alternate modes.

Sarah got up from the car and stretched her back after being sitting down there working for the last couple hours, unplugging her laptop and closing the car she left her equipment on the desk, calling the attention of the two techs sitting there

"Take a break guys, we'll continue working on this tomorrow"

to this Billy was the first to jump out "already? it's not even dark yet"

"I know, but I want to take KITT out on a run to test a few things before night arrives and in all honesty we all need to break away from this for a little bit, tomorrow we'll give it a fresh look in the morning and maybe if the Two Thousand is back by then he can give us a hand and hopefully get this fixed between tomorrow and the day after that"

reluctantly the two techs agreed and closed their computers, Zoe moving to lay down on the couch and Billy simply switching to his laptop and booting up some game; KITT watched the shift in activities change and found himself not knowing what to do while waiting for Sarah to return, he stayed idle for a minute before something coming from within his own systems called his attention.

The light blue ball of light moved around the lightly lit open space of his own being, streams of data moved around freely as his background systems worked, he looked around to try and find where the initial pulse had originated from; the AI hovered around as he moved in search of the mysterious pulse, he eventually simply stopped in hopes of getting another pulse that would give him a better idea as to where was it coming from but he had no such luck and before he could go back to searching a few tapps on his hood dragged his attention back to the outside world where Sarah was standing in front of him with a tablet in hand.

"KITT can you hear me?"

"Yes, I'm sorry Sarah I was...busy"

"Busy? leave it, we'll work on the code when we get back, might even be good for you too to step away from it for a little while"

rather glad that Sarah though that he had been busy working on the code instead of questioning him about it he brushed aside the thoughts around the pulse, more than anything he was glad about it because he wouldn't know how to describe to the tech what had him busy enough to not react to her calling him by name up until she actually knocked on his hood.

Allowing Sarah to take control of the car he sat back and simply set himself to absorb all the information he could knowing that this would be the first time that he would be experiencing the feel of the car under higher speeds on the long stretches of road that the nearly desolate highway allowed for. When finally turning onto the highway off of the road that connected it to the SSC's enclosed area Sarah aligned herself on the road before pressing her foot down gradually on the gas; the AI felt the car's weight increasingly shift to the rear the harder the tech pressed on the accelerator up until after passing a speed threshold where the weight began redistributing itself on all four tires equally while at the same time he felt the increased pressure of the tires on the asphalt as a result from the increased downforce, together with the slow rise in their temperature due to the friction with the ground.

the Mustang took in all the data including the rate at which he picked up speed in relation to the changes happening around his suspension and tires in general, the feeling of the rushing wind moving smoothly around the car's aerodynamic body providing aid in gripping the road as well as fighting against being slowed down by the air resistance; sitting back and simply taking in all the data he found himself somewhat amazed at his own system, this was him moving at a high speed on a long road yet at the same time it wasn't him, he wanted to see how different things were while he was the one controlling the car yet at the same time he knew that he would not risk going this fast on his first run, he would go through the speed tests gradually moving on from one benchmark to the next after getting used to driving at said speed, as Sarah drove he made calculations and analyzed the road ahead using several systems including long range scanner, direct view and satellite imagery to look out for any imperfections on the road that could be big enough to make the car do any sort of abrupt movement that could throw them off the road and yet without any assistance from him Sarah was keeping perfect control of the car. KITT was about to lay bac and settle on analyzing some of the data he had gathered when his attention got called back to the driving after sensing that his speed was no longer staying at a constant pace. After a few minutes of staying at a constant speed Sarah pressed down on the accelerator hard enough to make some real use of the new parts she had installed on the engine, a split second after she put her foot down the whine of the modified supercharger filled the cabin as the G-force pushed her back against the seat while the car gained speed at an unreal rate, lifting her foot from the gas the cabin remained filled with now only the deep rumble of the engine.

KITT was slightly taken aback by the sudden change, the response after Sarah had pressed the gas was instantaneous and unlike the previous stretch of road they had picked up speed at the super charger on his engine was clearly evident both in the feel of the car and the sound itself; immediately the weight of the car shifted back to the rear wheels and the downforce increased proportionally with his speed, after a couple seconds the tech let off the gas and simply let the speed he had acquired naturally decrease, the AI had increased his scanner range and calculation pace as well since now he had less time to check the road ahead of him and avoid whatever imperfection that could throw off his stability at this speed.

Eventually the two reached a crossroad where Sarah simply got out, walked around the car and sat on the passenger's seat with her tablet on hand, instructing KITT to drive all the way back; the AI explained how he would handle the speed tests and Sarah just agreed to let him do at at his own pace considering that unlike the maneuvers he practiced back at base there were more factors out here that could pose some danger to both of them, one small miscalculation could send them both flying by hitting a bump or hole in the road so the car prefered to take the first run to get used to actually controlling himself as he increased his speed since when Sarah was driving he could only gather data, in a way it was pretty much as if someone was learning to drive by sitting on the passenger's seat, you wouldn't learn much unless you really sat down to drive the car yourself and felt every move through the steering wheel and up your back through the seat.

KITT started the drive back, steadily he climbed up to average highway speed and stayed there for a few minutes as he gathered some data, he himself had felt the pull of accelerating from zero back at the hangar when he tested both that and his brakes so he had some data on that but even then he hadn't used the max acceleration and that feel was still unknown to him. right now he wouldn't be hitting the gas fully but instead working on picking up speed at intervals while he got used to the change in handling that came with the changing external forces that acter over the car. Sarah watched her tablet as the AI drove on the empty highway picking up speed steadily, she watched the charts and data flow on the tablet displaying the AI's internal activity rise and fall at a steady rhythm, rising whenever the car picked up speed and slowly going back down as he got the data he needed and got used to the feel and movement; she found it interesting to look at but at the same time it told her that KITT would need a few more rounds of this training over the course of the following few days to get him to the point where the charts and graphs on her tablet were constantly at a relatively steady level that signaled that the Mustang had mastered the driving to a point where he could do it in the background while working on something else at the same time (Considering their line of work multitasking suck as this was an essential ability that he would need to master)

About an hour later the two were arriving back at the SSC, Sarah got out of the car and stretched out before walking over to the desk and plugging in the tablet to save all the data she had gathered on the AI while on the road, the room was empty at the time and she guesses that the others were probably getting something to eat for the night so the room was in relative silence, only the low beeping of computers and other equipment and the crackling of the settling engine on the Mustang as it cooled down.

The group went back to work on the code for another couple hours before retiring for the night leaving KITT with a new batch of code to go over and install during the night so they could work more efficiently in the morning. sitting in the darkened room the AI took the first few hours of the transition between late night and early morning to finish the install of the new batch of fixed code. the light blue ball of energy hovered aimlessly around the vast core as it watched the last bits of the new code move and settle in their respective areas, as he stood in silence he felt once again the mysterious pulse he had felt earlier, it came only once but it was stronger this time around to the point that he was able to tell from what direction it had come, following it he found it surprising that it had come from his own secondary core (the one physically located behind his voice modulator on the dashboard for reference) hovering around it the pulse came again, stronger than before and accompanied by a light wave of energy that came from the bright portal-like wall of light that allowed him to enter his core. The AI was curious now, he had no idea what this pulse could be but something told him that it wasn't something dangerous, not even something unknown; something about the pulse itself felt incredibly familiar but he still couldn't even guess what it was.

after thinking it through and running several possibilities he decided to simply enter the core and figure out what this was.

going through the portal he found himself in a vaguely lit open area, rivers of information ran around the 'ground' and some more data flew from one place to the other, so far there was nothing that called his attention as odd or out of place, nothing that could be emitting that pulse that he felt from the outside. He was about to turn back and leave but once again he felt it, looking in the direction it had come from the light blue ball of light hovered over to where it had come from quickly and eventually found himself looking straight at a small division in one of the walls, a crack, one might say; the opening on the wall was small but the AI could clearly see the shine of a deep royal blue light coming out of it, he didn't remember seeing this before at all and it was the only thing that he could think of that could be to blame for the sudden pulses he had been feeling.

As he looked at the glowing crack in the wall that familiar feeling came back, this caused him to pull in closer just as another pulse came from inside the crack itself, now completely sure that this was the source the light blue light reached out allowed himself to be pulled in.

Diving through the small opening he found himself in a small room-like area, there was nothing but an orb of the deep royal blue light he had seen before floating in the middle of it, the thing was easily about three times his own size but it's glow was faint. What was this? another entity perhaps? but how could that even be possible? there was no way this entity could've been here all along without him or any of his techs noticing...right?

As he though everything through that was the only thing he could conclude, based on what he could see this entity was more powerful than he was as well as more knowledgeable but if it's low, pulsating glow was anything to go by he guessed that it was in some sort of hibernation or deep dormant state; he got a little bit closer to the parge orb and just then another pulse came from it, it was way stronger than all the others combined and it physically pushed the light blue ball of light back; as he regained himself the AI felt that familiarity once more but this time somehow he felt that the orb was calling to him, peaking his curiosity.

The light blue ball of light slowly approached and cautiously reached out to the large orb, upon making contact with it it's royal blue glow intensified to the point that it illuminated the small enclosed space completely, the AI felt his contact get incredibly hot and thought about pulling back but just as it had started it stopped and then the heat simmered down to simply a warm feeling that at the time he could only compare to what he felt when he stopped at the edge of the hangar with the car's front end being bathed by the sun. the feeling was somehow comforting and he simply allowed himself to be engulfed by the light around him, he stayed like that for a while, completely unmoving as he small ball of light felt himself growing in size, he somehow felt more powerful and deep down he couldn't help but feel like this was only natural somehow...then it clicked, of course! everything made perfect sense now that he thought about this...this other orb, this was not another entity but the complete opposite...this was him!


	14. Chapter 14

The following morning the group walked into the main chamber refreshed and ready to look at the code with new eyes hoping to finally get past this bump that had been bothering them from even before the fight with Daniel, Sarah sat at the main desk and began booting up the computers while Billy, Zoe and Mike left to get some more tools and equipment from another room; turning around in her chair while waiting on the computers she noticed the AI's scanner was still turned off, standing up and walking closer to him she tapped on the car's hood a couple times and to her surprise even after a few seconds went by there still seemed to be no response from the Mustang so a light worry began creeping up on the back of her head as she ran the possibility that maybe there had been something wrong with the code they had given him last night and something else was broken now.

Knowing that there was nothing on the code that could possibly cause any major flaws she relaxed a little bit and simply set herself to manually perform a system reboot, if the issue was with the code fitting in with the rest then this should fix it and allow KITT to power back up without any more issues once the process was complete; Sitting back at her computer she used her remote access to KITT and began the rebooting process while she waited for the others to come back.

As she absentmindedly sat on the desk her attention switched when she heard the outer hangar doors opening, she guessed that probably the Two Thousand and Michael were back but she could've never guessed what actually came in through the entry tunel; sure enough it was Kitt but what struck her as odd was the fact that the normally pristine car was not only covered in dirt but also even from her place at the desk she was able to see some scratches and small dents, none of the damage she could see was that prominent but the simple fact that it was even showing some damage worried her.

Walking over to the car as it abruptly stopped next to the Mustang she took a deep look at the car now that she was closer to it "Kitt, what the hell happened to you?!"

"We got ambushed last night while Michael was taking care of some business inside one of the secondary FBI offices, I tried going after the car that had taken him but not even five minutes after entering the highway two large armored cars joined and I got rammed off the road several times, eventually some of my systems got damaged like my tracking and communications after they angled one of their attacks in a way that when getting pushed off the road I hit an embankment that threw me further off the road and into a ditch that I had some trouble getting out of. By the time I was back on the road the convoy was nowhere to be seen and without any way to track Michael or communicate with you my only option was getting back here as fast as possible"

"Crap what timing, we gave KITT a new batch of code last night but something locked his systems so I have to wait for the reboot to finish before anything else and I have no idea how long that will take"

"Then I'll have to leave again, I have a general idea of an area where they could've gone and considering the distance I would rather leave to get there now"

"Are you sure you can hold up? you don't look so good"

"It's mostly superficial damage and I think I can fix a few systems on my own on my way there if I'm not focused on driving"

"Well then take Mike with you, I'll call them all back here now"

trotting back to the desk Sarah activated the complex's emergency alarm, red lights and sirens blared loudly throughout the large building and she was sure that with this the others would quickly run back to see what was happening. Sure enough about two minutes later and Mike and Zoe ran back into the room, Billy lagging lightly behind them.

Upon entering the room Mike's eyes fell immediately on the Knight Two thousand, taking note of the car's state as he took all in, the sirens stopped and silence returned around the base so immediately he turned to Sarah for answers which she began giving out before he could even speak.

"Michael got ambushed last night during his errand and Kitt lost track of him when running away, I'll omit the detail since this is an urgent matter but Mike you need to get in Kitt and drive him in the direction that he tells you while he works on fixing some of his internal systems"

"wait what about KITT?"

"He's rebooting right now, there was some sort of minor issue with the code we gave him last night but after the reboot he should be back to normal. you need to go now, I'll give you updates on him if you want and we'll check over the possibility of sending him your way after he comes back online but for now just get in that car and drive"

With a determined expression plastered all over his face Mike nodded and ran around to the driver's side of the Trans am, starting up the engine he hit the reverse and began speeding out of the tunnel, pulling a clean J-turn once out in the open hangar and pressing down on the gas of the highly powerful car which only launched the car at an increasing rate of speed through the hangar and out in the open area heading for the highway.

The team of techs sat at their computers typing away quickly until they got a satellite hooked up the the Knight Two thousand's location, they set themselves to the task of remotely accessing the AI and helping with some of the repairs to make everything flow as smoothly and quickly as possible; the first hour flew by and by then the team had managed to repair the AI's communications systems just enough to allow them to communicate with each other and send small data packages, one of said packages being the one Kitt sent back to the SSC containing the possible area where he thought they could've taken Michael.

Mike sat on the driver's seat with his hands on the wheel and his attention fully focused on the road ahead of them, he had a thousand things running through his mind and eventually he decided to break the silence.

"Kitt, you said it was a group of men that took my dad right?"

"Yes, at least from what I could see while chasing them"

"Well now the problem is who would want to go after him"

"Mike there is something you might need to know, about why we left the SSC yesterday in the first place"

"What's that?"

"We left because we got a specific call saying that apparently there had been an issue with Daniel while being transferred from where he was being held, this was sent to us privately since they knew that you and the rest of the team were going to be busy working on getting KITT fixed so that's why we left without saying where we were going"

Mike stood quiet for a little while as he processed the information before speaking again "Well then what was the issue with Daniel?"

"Apparently they lost the signal from his transport vehicle, they were hoping that we could track them but as Michael was leaving the office where he got all the data that's when we got ambushed...I have my own reasons to believe that Daniel's disappearance, the call being addressed to us alone and the kidnapping were too close together to be called by chance"

"Yeah now that you mention it it's far too well put together for that which means that if we find whoever kidnapped him we'll probably find Daniel as well"

"My thoughts exactly"

"Well that gives me one more reason to keep looking, with no FBI involved this time I can finally get back at the guy for what he did to KITT and now for going after my father"

"I know you are still angry about the whole situation Mike but I have to warn you, all things considered the FBI is bound to come to us, especially if the call we got was actually staged and they don't know about the missing transport vehicle yet"

"I highly doubt they don't know about it by now, they are probably too busy trying to find him on their own not wanting to come to us for it because of our connection to him and basically everything that happened a couple months back"

"That could be possible, in the events that they do reach out to us what should we tell them?"

"What do you mean what should we tell them? we tell them we're already on the case and that we'll take care of it seeing as they dropped the ball on it"

Kitt focused his attention on fixing some of the remaining systems as Mike continued to keep driving, he had seen the look on Mike's face when he mentioned Daniel and the way he spoke told him enough to know that he was in a dangerous state; the man hadn't been over what Daniel had done to the younger AI and the way their fight had been split last time made him think that he still had unfinished business with the ex-FBI coordinator.

Kitt knew that if Mike was anything like his father, which he was, that the fire that now plagued his eyes was a dangerous one, his current anger was the fuel pushing him to this extent and even he didn't know how lost in it he was; he had to talk him into calming down somehow but he decided to wait in hopes that driving alone would calm him down eventually, it that failed then he would wait until they found their destination to talk him into calming down on their way there since in Kitt's experience emotions could get in the way of things and more often than not lead to unwanted outcomes.

Sarah sat on the large main desk of the SSC as she tried to figure out where could Mike's father been taken to around the area where Kitt had calculated to be the most likely place, she leaned back on her chair and took a deep breath as her glance shifted over to another screen where the progress bar on KITT's rebooting sequence was, since starting before Mike left and up to this point it was up at 33% done which meant that it had gone that far in the span of over an hour and caused her to think that maybe there had been something wrong with the code, normally it shouldn't have taken this long for this to go through but the fact that it was only caused her worry and already on edge state to increase. Focusing back on the search simply because there was nothing else they could do for him now she only hoped that once the reboot was complete there really was nothing wrong with KITT.

The following hour went by uneventful enough and the team still didn't have an exact location despite having been able to narrow down the search area further, Mike and Kitt had been driving around the area for a little while and there was nothing out of the ordinary that they could tell, the calmness that had spread over the group at the SSC was suddenly shattered when their connection to the Knight Two Thousand's video feeds changed to pure static. Sending orders left and right Sarah took the lead in attempting to regain connection but no matter from where they looked at it the couldn't get back to Kitt. Billy was the first one to get any successful attempt and managed to get a satellite view of Kitt, the Trans am was still just driving normally which caused some confusion between them, if the two of them were fine then why had the connection been cut like that, did they even know that they had lost contact? more importantly though, had the cut in their communication been intentional?

This new thought caused her nerves to rocket, sharing this knowledge with Billy and Zoe both agreed that all things considered that was the most likely case scenario.

Mike had let off the wheel and allowed the AI to take control of the car for a while, looking around the small town they had ended up on he saw nothing out of the ordinary but he kept an eye out now that they had some leads that pointed that his dad must be around this town somewhere, he ignored the stares from the occasional passerby either from seeing a classic car like the Two Thousand was or simply because of the state he was currently in being covered in dirt, dust and the occasional scratch here and there. He wondered about what Kitt had told him earlier, if Daniel was indeed behind this again then why, what possible purpose could there be to this? as far as he knew the man thought he had accomplished his purpose of destroying KITT since he had no idea that they had been working on his repairs for the last two months; also why would he go after his father? only thing he could think of was that it was a plan to get to him for whatever reason...well, if that was the case then so be it, at least maybe now he would manage to get some peace of mind against the man.

His thoughts were then broken by the AI's voice "Mike, I believe we have a problem"

"What's that?"

"There is a light colored sedan that has been following us for a few streets now"

"You checked the license plate?"

"I did, the car was reported stolen a few days ago"  
"Safe to say we found what we came here for then, contact Sarah and tell her we're close, maybe they can give us a bigger view of things"

there were a few seconds of silence from the AI then before he spoke again "It appears that I cannot get in contact with them anymore"

"What, why?"

"now that I'm seeing this, I can't seem to be able to access any of my communication systems anymore"

"Just great, they're blocking us now so we are completely in the dark. any ideas Kitt?"

"For now I believe our best course of action would be to keep driving and see if anything changes, if nothing happens then I suggest stopping at a gas station or someplace similar to see if that triggers any kind of response"

"Sounds like a plan…"

The two drove around town for almost another hour and seeing nothing changing other than the original light color sedan leaving to have a different car charged with the task of following they decided to stop at the next gas station they passed. pulling into the place Mike noticed the gray car kept driving and did not follow them on the parking lot of the station, getting down from the car he decided to play the part and go into the store to buy whatever thing to avoid suspicion; as he walked around the isles he kept out an eye for any suspicious characters. Throughout his run around the store he didn't see anything which only confused him, why would they go through all the trouble of following him around town only to simply let him go around like that.

Paying for a bottle of water he took one last glance around the store before leaving and heading back to the Trans am, he kept an eye open as he walked over to where he had parked the car, again there was nothing of interest up until he walked around the corner and saw a man in all dark clothes standing near the car with his back turned to him; from where he was walking he noticed the slightly more hurried pace at which the AI's scanner was tracking at and that told him enough to know that they had made some sort of contact.

Picking up his pace he was stopped halfway to the AI by something hard pressing against his back which made him instinctively stop cold in his tracks, sure enough when he turned around he was met with a steely gaze from a dark haired man as he cautiously kept a gun pressed against his back but out of sight from any curious eyes.

"Don't move Knight, we have the whole area surrounded and that AI won't be moving anytime soon unless we tell it to in order to keep its driver out of harm's way"

suppressing a half amused laugh Mike turned his look up at the sky as he spoke next "You really think you got us by surprise? you really need to figure out a less obvious way to tail a car without being noticed. As for trying to run away, well...you think we would run after it took us so long to find you?"

Mike sat inside the Trans am as Kitt drove, following the gray car that had been following them before, they eventually turned away from the road and into a dirt path that was half lost amongst the trees, the ride was quiet nearly all the way until the AI finally broke the silence in the most extraordinary way possible.

"Son of a bitch…"

Mike had to to a doubletake that very instant to check if he had heard it correctly "Kitt are you...okay, did I hear that right?"

"Those bastards found Michael's house by the lake and are now using it as their personal hideout"

"What?, are you sure about that Kitt?"

"Completely, I might not be able to know our exact position now that I have some other systems being blocked by some sort of field but I'd know this back road anywhere. There is no doubt that we're heading to the lakeside house where we took refuge in for so long"

Focusing his vision back on what was going on directly ahead of him as Kitt drove Mike could now understand where the anger on the AI had come from, not only where they using their home as a makeshift base but it now made perfect sense why they couldn't find anything as to where they had gone; this place was practically a blind spot for satellites and other radars and detection programs so that had been why they chose that place...still it bothered him just as much that they had taken advantage of the situation to take over the place.

Sarah paced back and forth in front of the Mustang as she watched the main screen, they had lost contact completely with the Two Thousand after entering a gas station about twenty minutes ago and they still couldn't manage to get them back. On the upside she guessed that they had found what they were looking for but on the downside now they were alone and probably outnumbered in a location they didn't know.

Stopping her pacing as she watched the other two techs work she turned around and looked over at KITT, the progress bar on the system reset had been stuck at reboot completed for the last ten minutes but there was no visual cues from the AI to show that it had been completed. Walking around the car she moved over to the side and leaned down to peek inside in hopes of finding some signs of being active and to her surprise she found exactly that although instead of alleviating her worries it only made them worse

"Guys...you two might wanna come see this"

Slightly confused the techs exchanged looks before leaving their work and standing up, walking over to the other side of the car they both went to look through the window. What the three were now looking at was an endless run of binary code that was running at speeds too fast to make anything out of. Whatever the issue had been with the last implemented code it had a system-wide effect on the AI and the worse part of it was that they couldn't do anything to stop the process now.

Walking back around to the computers up front to try and get access to at least see what has happening to the AI, moving around she placed her hand on the car's hood for support which instantly made her stop on her tracks, not only was the car as hot as it would've been if it had been running for a while but she was almost positive that there was a nearly imperceptible vibration coming from it; what surprised her about this last part that it wasn't a vibration like what it would be if the engine was on, it was so subtle that the only explanation she had was that it wasn't a vibration at all...it was the Nano-skin itself moving under her hand and rearranging itself.

Taking a step back she looked over the car and noticed the movement on the parts of the car where the lights were directly reflecting off of the smooth surface, unlike the simply glossy smooth finish those points where the light hit it directly there was a slight shimmer as the delicate nanobots danced around. Sarah was thoroughly confused now, not only did she have absolutely no idea of what was happening but this was also the worst time it could be happening as well; first Mike, his dad and the Two Thousand were nowhere to be found and now this...could the day get any worse?

All of a sudden the entry and hangar doors began opening and the group ran back to their computers to check their systems and cameras, fearing that this had been another setup by Daniel and his new group of men; as they typed away at their computers another sound called their attention and they turned to see the gimbal where the Mustang sat turning around so that the car was facing the open doors. Before any of them could even utter a sound the car's engine came to life and the Mustang's panels switched and folded into themselves as new ones reformed and got rearranged around the car.

In the span of a few seconds the Mustang had changed to a more aggressive look and stance, the attack mode was relatively the same as it had alway been with the exception that the triple intake on the hood had been switched to a simple vent to lead hot air out of the engine bay and the two front grilles were now nearly uncovered to allow for better airflow, the massive rear wing had shrunk down and taken a smoother shape while the sides of the car were also smoother and with a better-flowing widebody with another intake to lead air into the rear wheels and up and around the new wing for better downforce.

With a loud roar the car then took off without a word out the tunnel and into the hangar only to immediately leave that behind as well and enter the highway at an incredible speed, heading in the direction in which the team had Mike and the Two Thousand's last known location. Drowned in shock the three team members on the main chamber of the SSC were at a loss of words and thoroughly confused, what was even happening anymore?!

out of the three Sarah seemed to be the most concerned, she had no idea what had happened either but she did know one thing; if she had to take a guess she would bet that judging by the transformation sequence the car's Nano-skin had been fixed and was now working to its full potential, easily surpassing the one previously on KITT by over twice with the new setup but she still wondered how that had happened without her, Billy or Zoe having anything to do in the matter. Then there was the fact that the AI's attack mode was different even though she was positive neither of them had even touched that code, much less modify it like that without previous testing.

Lastly there was the one question as to why had all this happened and why was the AI not answering to their attempts at communicating, was that even KITT out there?

The convoy drove through until the dirt road completely disappeared and the group was driving fully on the wild brush of the nearly untouched nature, eventually after going around a hill the lake came into view and across from them directly was the rustic looking cottage where a set of tents big enough for a car or two were set up around while some other cars were parked out in front.

Mike's heartbeat quickened in anticipation as the two cars that were driving in front of the AI drove off to a side and left Kitt to stop directly in front of the house while another car remained behind them.

Mike looked around at the couple men standing around, he had an idea that maybe Daniel was the one behind of all of this bue now as he saw the sort of equipment the men around were carrying there was no longer even a trace of doubt on his mind; the equipment these men had was basic FBI weapons and there was no other way he could think of them getting it if not by Daniel.

Sharing a worried look Mike opened the door of the car and stepped out, looking at the armed men around the front of the house they kept their eyes fixed on him and the AI, he waited then in expectations of something happening and just as he closed the car's door the one man he was hoping to see here came out of one of the tents next to the house, the man was wearing a suit and seemed as elegant as any other FBI directive which bothered him to no end; this man was supposed to be on his one way trip to a prison where he wouldn't be leaving for who knows how long but instead he was standing in front of him as if nothing had happened.

"Mike Knight, been a while since we last met, glad to see you finally decided to show up by the way"

"Quit the chatter Daniel, where's my dad?"

"Oh he's fine don't worry, I just needed him to drag you out here. No one to protect you now, we can get to our unfinished business"

"You say no one as if I couldn't fend for myself but not only that but, unless you're somehow blind now, Kitt is right here next to me"

"Oh I know, but I also know that it is program-bound to ensure his driver's protection over anything else, if I were to...I don't know, place a scenario in which it was your life or your father's life on the line I am pretty sure of what the outcome there would be"

A cold wave coursed through him as he realized that not only was the man right, but he was hilariously outgunned and outnumbered where he stood and he had a feeling that after that last statement the AI had also been thrown into a mental turmoil.

"Well, what do you want then? why go through all this if you only wanted to kill me instead of just hiring someone to do it and go underground yourself seeing as you're one of the FBI's most wanted now"

"I could've done that yeah but it would take away some of the fun, you know I never had nothing personal against you or any of your friends to begin with but the moment you began interfering with my plans and personally getting your nose stuck where it doesn't belong that's when you made it personal"

"Me?! you were the one that started this whole mess by going after KITT in your stupid plan to mass produce his AI, have you not seen that all attempts at doing that with him AND the Two Thousand have all ended in disaster?"

"I know that but if you remember a couple months ago the AI I created was pretty much able to defeat yours"

"Because he wasn't even fully working, he had issues with some of the more advanced systems and the Nano-skin, if that had been a fair fight KITT would've wont it easily"

"Well war is not a fair game is it? you of all people should know that"

"Besides if I were you I wouldn't go as far as calling our last meeting a win, if anything it was more of a tie, if my memory serves me right you had to pull out your plan B and switch targets to me the moment KITT began pushing back and your advantage crumbled"

"Come on Mike, that only brings forth the main weakness that made my AI superior, had your KITT been able to shoot first and ask questions later I wouldn't be here and it would probably still be active"

Mike kept his straight face as he listened to the man, so his guess was right after all. Daniel still thought that KITT had been destroyed and he was pretty sure he had no knowledge of them working on rebuilding him right after the fight; for the first time in his life he internally thanked how tight-lipped the FBI office had been with this particular topic.

The AI kept full attention on the road ahead of him, using sensors and satellite imagery to avoid any possible imperfections on the road or other cars that could be driving around, he had been hearing everything that had been happening on the SSC while on his rebooting process and now the one thing on his processor was to get to Mike as soon as possible. Taking his last known location he plotted the fastest route to get there and began his journey.

KITT could easily split his attention to look into finding Mike faster but right now this was his first time in this new body...well, maybe not technically and maybe he did have the data he had gathered before but for him this was the first time he was truly himself since after the first fight with Daniel and his AI a couple months back. Back then he managed to make a split second decision after running some simulations as he held the other AI back and prevented it from firing a missile straight at Mike; even then his odds were slim but it was a chance he was willing to take so as he launched his own missile in the second that it took to be launched and make contact with the AI in front of him he dumped his core files and part of 'himself' so to speak into a secluded area of his core, the area was just an empty void and he had no idea what its original purpose could've been but right now he was glad it existed and so by doing that he had a safe backup in case the damage he knew he was going to take were to be too much for his already damaged frame and body.

The black blur that was the Mustang as he practically flew across the highway turned his attention to the new and improved systems, of course the first thing he immediately noticed upon really hitting the accelerator was the big change in his engine, not only was the sound different from what he remembered even in attack mode but it was different from what he had heard and registered during the time where Sarah took him out for training before being back to being himself again. Before he knew he had a new and way better suited supercharger to really get him going but now the feeling was entirely different, the attack mode enabled him to use other parts of the engine that were otherwise sealed off and amongst a few of those was a high capacity turbocharger; all in all this new monster of an engine he had when in attack mode was a twin-charged high rev engine that produced most of its power over the 8 thousand RPMs bar with a redline of 11 thousand and a max limit of 14 thousand RPMs.

Aside from the new powerhouse he found it interesting that the simulation he had created earlier for an improved efficiency on his attack mode regarding aerodynamics had worked on the first try without any issues, the new wing provided just the right amount of extra downforce and the open grille kept his average engine temperature a few degrees lower than before even when being overused like he was right now. KITT truly relished in having his true feeling of power and self control back, he didn't realized he had missed it so much until now and as he felt the rushing wind moving around his body he noticed that even now that felt different, whatever Sarah and the others had done with this new body and setup he was really liking it.

Turning back his focus on the road he let his systems work on figuring out where Mike had been taken to with the Two Thousand, he couldn't hide the fact that he was anxious only knowing they had disappeared when scouting the area where Kitt had had predicted they had taken Michael plus to make matters worse he now knew that somehow Daniel was once again behind all of this. Then there was this one fundamental problem, once again he was somewhat on the disadvantage again since very few of his weapons were operational in the sense that he only had ammo for two of them and even then the ammo was very limited, maybe he shouldn't have left the SSC like that without being really prepared but he couldn't really waste any time at all.

Wait...the SSC, Sarah and the others probably had no idea of what had happened still and he just now realized that all of his communications had been unconsciously locked out so there was no way for them to contact him. Dropping the block he had over them only a couple seconds went by before he received an incoming call from the SSC that he immediately opened and braced for the rage that was sure to be unfolded upon him by Sarah herself.

And sure enough just as KITT had predicted the tech immediately began heatedly sending question after question to the AI.

"KITT, what the hell is going on now and where are you? why did you have your communications locked and why in the world did you take off like that at that speed when you're not even close to completing that section of the training?!"

"I'm sorry Sarah but I promise that I can explain"

"Oh you better, start talking. What happened with that reboot we ran this morning? what was wrong with the code we gave you last night?"

"Nothing was wrong with your code, it was fully integrated into my systems within the hour"

"Well if that wasn't it then...why were your systems shut off like that?"

"Well, it's a little hard to explain right now but I will give a full explanation when all of this is over but for now I can tell you that you have nothing to worry about"

Sarah was about to ask why he was saying that when her mind finally caught up to everything and slowed down. The tone of the AI's voice was different and it felt less...mechanic, he wasn't just using super formal language all the time and the fact that he had brushed off some of her questions instead of answering them straight away...what was this? "KITT?"

"Yes?"

"Are you...really you?" Billy and Zoe both turned to look at her with confused expressions, not knowing what the tech was getting at now

"If by that you mean what I think you mean...then yes, like I said before I will explain this to you and the others after this is over since it is somewhat of a long story. This is also why I told you that there was nothing to worry about; I am heading over to Mike's last known location as we speak while attempting to track their movements to figure out where they went after that"

"Okay KITT, keep doing that then we'll do what we can from here, be careful...and glad to have you back"

"it's good to be back, thank you Sarah"

the chat line ended there and the looks on the two techs remained the same, both feeling as if they had been left out of the loop somewhere; Sarah saw this and simply told them what she knew.

"So before you guys start asking questions, something happened to KITT last night that managed to get him back to being well...him, as in he has back all of his own experiences and his integrated learning and behaviour algorithm half rolled back somehow to recover what he lost after the fight with Daniel, I don't know the details but as he said he would explain it all later. For now we just be happy that he's back in the best time possible"

exchanging somewhat surprised and still confused looks the two techs set themselves back to work, Sarah moved over to another computer and began working herself as well, for the first time in a while they had an advantage and she was sure as hell going to use it.

Mike leaned an arm on the roof of the Trans am leisurely as he looked around at the men surrounding him and Daniel standing in front of him "So what now, how long do you plan on standing there looking pretty?"

"Oh don't worry, this little meeting will be over sooner than you think. First of all now that I have a proper look I see my people managed to do a number of that AI of yours, no surprise there seeing as it's a 25 year old car by now but I do have to say that I expected more from the 'miracle machine' that turned so many heads back in the day"

Now it was Mike's turn to be confused, why was Daniel trying to provoke the AI? it's not like Kitt would fall for something so low now would he?...right?

Well no, Kitt would never fall for something as simple as a taunt made to try and drag him into action but under the current circumstances he was quite irritated and frankly not in the mood to take anything from the man that had not only kidnapped his driver but also taken their home and made it into their temporary base taking advantage of their secluded spot hidden from pretty much any direct detection, no one would be able to find them unless they knew what they were looking for.

The Trans am fired up his engine as a taunt of his own, he knew it had served its purpose the moment the armed men surrounding them rose their guns and pointed them at him but he noticed that Mike looked awfully surprised as well; linking himself to the man's earpiece he spoke only to him "Don't worry Mike, I'm just playing into his game to try and force some action from him"

The ranger visually relaxed then just enough for the AI to notice, keeping a forced surprised look to play into the game as well since if he looked surprised at the AI's actions then surely the other men would believe that even he couldn't hold back the Trans am. Taking a quick look at Daniel he saw that his previously confident demeanor still stood, the guy had some nerve but at this point Mike didn't know if it was something legitimate or if he had a few screws loose by now.

"Now now Kitt, we both know you won't do anything to any of us, you are restricted from that by core programing as was the Three Thousand and that was and will be your downfall in the end"

Kitt responded just then by launching forwards in a way that startled even Mike where he had been standing next to him, the second he took off Daniel rose his hands to stop any actions from the guards that stood around as a cloud of dirt rose around the car for the couple seconds that he raced towards where the man stood right in front of the house. A silence fell over everyone as the dust that had been kicked up settled down to reveal the AI where he stood with his front bumper a mere inch away from Daniel's legs, engine idling with a threatening rumble while the man simply stood in his place completely unfazed.

Looking down at the car right in front of him Daniel saw the quick swooshing of the ruby red scanner he had seen many times before in archive files, rising his head back up he saw Mike still in his same place with a somewhat surprised look. Letting a smile creep up to the corner of his mouth he made a small gesture with his hand and after a couple seconds some ruckus was heard from inside the house and out the door came Michael being held back by two men as he wrestled to try and break free; Kitt quickly backed away slightly just enough to be able to turn so that he was facing his driver when another simple hand gesture from Daniel had a third man point up a small handgun and aimed it at the man which caused him to immediately stop his struggles.

Kitt Froze in his place the second a gunshot rang on the otherwise silent area, Michael stopped his struggles as he searched for the source only to see one of the guards with a gun pointed to where Mike now laid kneeling down on the ground clutching his leg; He began fighting off the two men holding him and managed to get rid of one of them but the sound of another gun being cocked stopped him cold in his tracks. Daniel had another guard pointing a gun at Michael, he began thinking of anything he could do but all scenarios posed a threat to his driver, looking behind him he saw Mike on the ground clutching the area on his leg where the bullet had made impact; he guessed that the moment he saw his father he had ran for him and ended up being shot by one of the guards to keep him still but at least he knew from a quick scan he had managed to push out that his wound was nothing really life threatening.

Daniel stopped to look at his surroundings as he smiled, this time his plan had gone accordingly and with the Three thousand out of the play there was nothing that could stop him now, besides he still had a backup copy of the data he had extracted from the AI first so all he had to do now was tweak that, find a suitable body and he would be back at the top in no time.

he stepped down from the front porch of the house and started walking by the black T-top stopping and bending down slightly he spoke low enough so that only the AI would be able to hear him "Don't try anything funny, all I have to do is give the order and your driver's dead" leaving the AI feeling powerless he continued his walk over to where Mike was standing.

Mike could only watch as Kitt stood in front of Daniel, only the engine of the car proving to be a source of sound, the moment Kitt backed up he looked over to the house where he saw his father being dragged out by two men. Breaking out in a sprint he barely had the chance to go through a a couple strides before a sharp pain shot up his left leg and caused him to drop down to the ground both because of the pain and instinctually upon hearing a gunshot; he remained there for a few seconds without moving as he tried to slightly brush some of the pain away, finally opening his eyes he turned his head up to see Daniel bent down next to Kitt, he assumed he told him something but they were too far to hear anything considering the man's voice had barely gone over a whisper.

The ex-FBI agent walked over to Mike and stood in front of him, another wave of pain hit his leg but knowing Daniel was approaching he pushed through it and forced himself to stand up despite his injury. Keeping a hand on the wound he half stood up as far as he could go without the pain shooting back up, the side of his pants stained with a dark red.

Daniel saw the wobbling man in front of him, normally he would be shorter than him but in this position he had been forced into due to the shot on his leg he was able to stand taller "Oh Mike, you thought you could run over there and go on your merry way? did you forget about all the guards standing around you in plain sight? I'll say it was somewhat of a disappointment considering you were an army ranger" Keeping a cold glare on the man as he saw through his sarcastic words Mike stood quiet, he admitted it was somewhat of a foolish move but what other thing could he do, really? "Well, I enjoyed our meetups Knight, they were most entertaining but now I have things to do and I really can't have you buttig in again where they don't call you" Daniel reached behind him then and pulled a handgun, he knew Kitt couldn't move without risking his already endangered life and his fathers and the SSC probably still didn't know where they were so right then and there he let go of his wound and stood up straight, deciding that if he was going to go at least it wouldn't be bent down in weakness.

Taking his time Daniel admired his gun before cocking it and aiming it at the man's head "I'd be lying if I said I expected more from you Mike...only thing I regret is not keeping you around to see the result of my research. Oh well, guess you can't win them all" placing his finger on the trigger he fixed his aim and stared down at the man as he began putting pressure on the gun; without any warning a silent bullet flew between the two men grazing Danie's hand enough to make him instantly drop the gun and clutch his hand in pain.

Mike immediately turned to look over in the direction he had seen the bullet hit from but saw nothing more than dense brush, everyone around froze and the guards began looking around for the source from where they sood. the silence was then broken by the sound of twigs being broken and leaves and plants being crushed over in the direction where Mike had first calculated the direction of the bullet and now everyone was looking over. All guards rose their guns up and aimed while Daniel kept holding his wrist where he had been grazed as he too turned to look over to where the sound was coming from.

KITT had finally found a trace that leaded him to the Two Thousand to an extent that allowed him to pinpoint his exact location even through the dampening field he had sensed around the area; this had been half an hour ago, from that moment on he sent the coordinates back to the SSC and pushed himself to go faster and shorten the time it would take him to reach the area while also thinking of a possible plan. The AI set himself into stealth mode as he left the narrow dirt road and drove into the thick brush that would serve as his cover to move around the house without being noticed, managing to suppress even the slight noises of leaves crunching under his tires he reached a spot where he was completely hidden yet still had a clear view of the situation although he really did not like how everything was looking so far.

Kitt suddenyly took off startling the AI somewhat and using his scanner to see through the cloud of dust that had been kicked up he saw him stop just an inch away from hitting Daniel, more than likely this had been some sort of intimidation technique but judging by the fact that the man had not moved one bit he was able to see through his purpose. when the dust settled two more men came out of the house holding down Michael which immediately brought forth a reaction from Kitt who backed up slightly to turn and face him directly.

Behind them Mike shot forth in a sprint that only lasted a couple strides before a gunshot rang out and he fell to the ground, KITT felt a shock of electricity course through his internal systems as he saw his driver fall to the ground like that; something close to panic made it's way around him as well as a hint of fear after seeing the scene in front of him. After a quick scan he confirmed that he had received a direct hit to one of his legs, effectively preventing him from doing anything.

The sudden turn of events forced the Mustang to try and figure out some sort of plan now that he could see all the variables that would be into play; Daniel walked down from the porch past the Trans am and headed for Mike where he was now half standing up still holding his leg where he had been hit.

To say that now KITT was on edge would be an understatement, this was not how he had planned to see Mike again after restoring himself fully but from experience he could tell that things never usually went the way one wanted them to. Daniel stopped in front of Mike and pulled out a gun just then, this was the trigger that forced the AI to jump into action seeing as he had ran out of time for any subtle strategies so keeping the movement of his panels slow enough to prevent any sound he pulled out the smaller gun from one of his sides and took aim the second Daniel rose his hand to take aim for Mike.

The sound of the bullet slicing the air was all that came out as he let out a single shot aimed just high enough to graze the man's hand without causing any truly serious injuries, as he had hoped the impact had caused him to drop the gun instinctively but now all the guards were looking around for the source of the shot. Well his cover had pretty much been blown by now so he might as well kick things into gear and get all of this over with.

KITT began driving forwards slowly and out of his cover area, not really caring about staying silent anymore he let the crunching of leaves and twigs go which gave everyone a clear line of sight of in which direction he was coming from so to complete the scene he deactivated his silent mode and gunned the engine once as he rolled forward and out into a clearing where he was now the center of attention. The AI widened his scanner and visual range as he took everything in and worked on a plan, as he did so he took special notice of the expressions of the men involved; Daniel's guards had suddenly become awfully serious while the man himself had a mix of shock and disbelief, Michael turned a small smile in Kitt's direction then and Mike simply stood in his place with an expression between shock, relief and happiness.

KITT turned towards where Daniel and Mike were standing and gunned his engine in challenge, he might still not be at 100% but he was well enough to face the armed men here with some ease and you can be damn sure he would go through them to make sure Mike didn't get hurt anymore.

Daniel watch dumbfounded as the black car pulled out from the brush and into a clearing some distance away, he took a step back still clutching his hand as he kept his eyes locked onto the scarlet red scanner pacing back and forth slowly across the car's grille. the man turned his eyes on Mike then "You...you rebuilt it?!"

recovering some of his confidence Mike stood tall against his injury and took a step closer to Daniel "Not only that, but he's been upgraded and perfected in almost every way you can think of"

"b-but that's impossible, I saw it blow up before, I saw it completely destroyed when we fought, how did you manage to recover any data from that clump of burn metal?!"

"We've got out ways, plus KITT is a whole lot tougher than you might think"

The car gunning the engine made Daniel turn back to look at it, there had definitely been some upgrading done to the engine just judging by the sound and if appearances were anything to go by as well then it just confirmed his guess now that he could see that the hood and rear wing were different. he allowed a small smile creep up on the corner of his mouth then "Well, this doesn't change the fact that I've got the advantage still"

turning around fully to face him Mike saw Daniel attempting to bend down to pick up his gun, reacting instantly he ignored the pain in his leg and kicked the gun off further to a side which set off a chain reaction from everyone around him.


	15. Chapter 15

**Extra long final chapter, sorry it took so long but it's here now to end the story.**

KITT saw everything in slow motion as the situation unfolded before him, the second Mike kicked out the gun Michael managed to also knock the gun out of the hands of the guy pointing it at him which in return made the guards around split their attention between him and Mike, without even needing to communicate with each other the two AIs took charge of their respective set of guards; Kitt having all of his equipment easily managed using darts and other non lethal methods to knock down the guards immediately surrounding Michael.

On the other side of the things KITT was facing a more complicated scenario since he only had his main weapons available, struggling to find a way around he started to be pushed by his core program to protect Mike as it conflicted with his preservation of human life. Getting over his mental debate in a fraction of a second he pulled out one of his side guns and took aim for the hands of the guards as they turned to point at Mike and began shooting in the same way he had managed to make Daniel drop his own gun, this seemed to work quite well and eased both sides of his conflicting program though even though he had eliminated the immediate threat of the guards around Mike now he had other issues, as both Mike and Daniel moved around the emerging chaos the AI spotted a pattern that told him the ex-FBI agent had another plan B.

Over near the house KITT spotted Michael taking cover from some of the guards behind a pillar of the house as he waited for a chance to run over to the Two Thousand, pressing down on the gas he drove through the chaos placed himself blocking the open area between Michael and Kitt, the man took the chance then and ran over to the Trans am where he took refuge in the bulletproof interior; with a silent thanks from him KITT slid his rear end around and headed back around to where his driver was now having a shootout with Daniel, as he started to make his way there around the scattering guards and tents he was stopped halfway by a blow to his side that made him internally flinch, as he began being pushed across the soft dirt terrain where he came face to face with one of the armored vehicles Kitt had mentioned before, despite him being way heavier than any normal Mustang or maybe even other bigger cars he was being easily pushed.

As he began getting pushed back further away from the fight he pressed down on the accelerator and managed to free himself from the push thanks to the combination of the the immediate response from the supercharger and the added increased power from the turbo, sliding around he was face to face with the larger vehicle as it drove through the brush picking up speed, a direct hit with that speed and weight would definitely not go by without giving him some trouble so waiting for the last possible second he took advantage of a new system he had accidentally discovered and he diverted some of his own electrical power to activated what in essence was an electric shield, his jet black paint began to shimmer and crackle with white bolts and sparks that ran all over the car's body, the larger vehicle that was steadily approaching saw this and stepped hard on the breaks in an attempt to stop but the carried momentum of the large mass combined with slippery terrain did not allow it to lose speed at a fast enough rate to stop.

The armored car despite its efforts continued to slide forwards and impacted with the AI at a considerable speed, the moment the two cars made contact with each other the electric current coursing around the Mustang was transferred over to the opposing car in a shower of sparks, KITT was pushed back by the impact some more but the hit was considerably less damaging than it would've been had he not activated his shield when he did and to even things out some more he saw that the shield also served an an offensive strategy since from where he stood he saw the driver of the armored car trying to turn it back on unsuccessfully.

Knowing that he had at least bought himself some precious time he turned around and began driving off to where he knew Mike was, as he pressed hard on the gas a warning popped up on his field of view, and upon investigating he realized that the hit he had received first had not only managed a dent on his side in an area where the Nano-skin had been weaker but it had also damaged a section of his oil line which now forced him to be more careful with his moves in the worst time possible.

Mike ducked down and hid behind another of the tents that had been set up around the house, he tried quickly standing back up but was stopped by the sharp pain on his leg from the shot he had received earlier, cursing his disadvantage he drowned out the distant gunfire and ruckus caused by the other gunmen and tried to focus on whatever sounds were closer to stay alert and try and find Daniel while he snuck around. Checking the ammo he had left in the gun he had picked up he slowly stood up and kept the gun close to his chest as he half limped around the side of the tent to peek at what was around him though to his bad luck the second he tried poking his head out a gunshot rang out close enough to him to make him instinctively retreat a split second before a bullet grazed the cloth on the side of the tent where his head had just been.

Cursing under his breath he walked around to the opposite side of the tent and got inside where luckily no one remained, quickly having a look around he searched for anything that could give him an advantage over Daniel while at the same time making sure to keep an ear out for any approaching footsteps. opening a drawer he stumbled across some medical supplies where he saw a small container of an anesthetic spray that he immediately took and applied to where he had received the gunshot; that was sure to at least numb out the pain enough to allow him to move around more fluently in case worse came to worse and he became stuck in a hand to hand fight with Daniel.

As he continued his search he heard a set of footsteps walking around the tent so with no more luck or time he grabbed the gun he had before again and headed out, having a quick look through the tent's flaps he saw there was nothing but open ground, if he could make a run for it he could reach the main house and be sure to find something useful there but in doing that he risked getting spotted or even shot at again by whoever had been walking around the back of the tent whether it be Daniel or one of the other men. With one last look around he decided to go for it and broke into a sprint across the open area as best he could with his condition; a shot rang out behind him and he dodged to a side just as a bullet landed on the ground in front of him from where he had been prior to dodging, the sudden jolt caused him to lose his already weak balance and a bump on the ground was all it took to make him fall down.

Wincing after the hard fall Mike turned around to try and stand back up but instead came face to face with a gun pointed down straight at him, Daniel standing there with a finger already on the trigger; he slowly stood up keeping his hands up in defeat as both men stared each other down, a sound similar to an explosion over to the side made both of them instinctively turn to find the source and Mike took this chance to grab the barrel of Daniel's gun and change it's aim to point down where he wouldn't get shot if they accidentally released a shot in their struggle to gain possession. The fight between the two was even as they exchanged blows that ended up being blocked by each other most of the times. Taking a risk Mike swooped down to try and sweep a kick to knock Daniel down while he himself picked up the gun he had dropped when he first fell down, his kick worked half-way because of his injury but it managed to make the ex-FBI agent stumbled back and lose his balance long enough to allow him to pick his gun back up and put some distance between them so after the couple seconds that went by during the exchange both men ended up at a standstill with guns pointed straight at each other and waiting for the next move.

Daniel rose up his gun to point at the man in front of him as he slightly winced due to the pain caused by the shot the Three Thousand had fired and grazed his wrist, the fact that the supposedly harmless AI had released a shot on him was somewhat of a shock in itself and it made him wonder how safe he really was in this situation; this piece of knowledge had definitely put a dent in his plan once again. The ruckus he was hearing across from the other side of the house worried him so he had to finish this off fast and get out before everything went down the drain even more.

He grabbed the gun with both hands for support since he knew his injured wrist would not be able to take the recoil and fixed his aim once more before placing his finger on the trigger, it was at that second that his world felt like it started moving in slow motion; the sound of an approaching engine as well as the braking and ripping of cloth made him turn over to the tent over to his right some distance away from which a jet black car was now ripping through at top speed and heading for where he was standing. Acting on instinct Daniel dodged to a side just as the car drove past him and placed itself between him and Mike.

Quickly getting back up and picking up his gun Daniel brushed the dirt off of him and turned to look to where now Mike was standing behind the AI, one hand on the car for support; looking at the AI iself he noticed that there was virtually no damage done to it even though he had deployed both his armored vehicles and if the car was here then he could only guess that both those vehicles had been taken out.

"How?...how are you here after the fight we had, there was nothing left I saw it myself!"

with a slight shake of his head Mike turned to look directly at the man in front of him "You really underestimate us Daniel"

rising his gun back up he caused the AI to move slightly backwards to be closer to Mike to cover him some more in case Daniel did release a shot on him "I'm not talking to you Knight, I'm talking to the AI, stay out of it. Now tell me how the hell did you manage to save yourself from that burnt and bent clump of metal that I last saw on that hangar"

keeping his silence for a few seconds as only the sound of his engine and distant gunshots filled the air he finally decided to answer in order to keep Daniel occupied and buy some time until the FBI team he had contacted could arrive. "my systems always have a backup at the base, my shell was destroyed but it would only be a matter of time to get a new shell ready so that I could be back" of course this was only partly true and KITT purposely left most details out for confidentiality reasons but he hoped that his answer would be clear and vague enough at the same time so that Daniel would keep asking questions.

"Maybe yes but I know that you can't just store all of your data completely and I also know thanks to my own research that the data you cannot transfer is stored in your main core which, if my own AI was anything to go by as well as the state your shell was on I can safely say that at the very least your core must've been damaged to some extent"

"And you would be correct, my main core did sustain some damage but it was nothing that could not be fixed. Your assumption that you had destroyed me back then only shows how little you truly understand how an AI really works which in the end makes you unfit to try and create one of your own, especially if the code is based off of another already working AI and simply modified to suit your needs without thinking of the possible consequences of your actions"

as this unfolded before him Mike could not help but be somewhat dumbfounded as well as confused, he was surprised to hear KITT all but scolding Daniel right here but what had him confused besides the actions themselves were the reason behind them as well as the way the AI was talking.

He had heard the AI talk enough since bringing him back that he was able to tell now that his tone had shifted slightly and the vocabulary he was using was more natural, as for what confused him most being the unknown reason for KITT acting this way he could only guess that he was doing it out of being legitimately pissed, he would even dare say somewhat angry but part of him could only think that it would be near impossible considering the car had lost the true personality he had cultivated over the past year that he had been working with him fully...on the other hand though taking into account the way he was speaking and the fact that he now noticed that there was no coldness or dryness to his words proper of the nature of an AI such as himself back in the day when they first met made him think that something had happened back at the SSC since they lost connection.

Leaving Daniel at a loss of words after his explanation KITT kept all of his sensors fully on alert, he was standing directly in front of Mike to cover him from getting injured further; he pushed out another scan on him then and saw that luckily other than a few scrapes and bruises there was no other injury as major as the shot he had received on his leg but still he couldn't shake the slight guilt for letting him get hurt like that in the first place.

Focusing back on Daniel and his surrounding area he suddenly got a feeling that something was off, he couldn't' tell what or why but he knew something bad was going to happen, he started to back up into Mike slow enough to just lightly push him back and further away from Daniel.

the AI saw Mike's confused expression as he forced him back being mindful of his injury, the man clearly did not know what was causing him to retreat but he opposed no resistance and simply moved back with him.

Kitt closed his driver's side door as soon as Michael was inside, he thanked the younger AI for his help with a flash of his scanner before turning around to escape the shower of bullets hitting him out in the open; he slid around the side of the house when a loud bang called his attention, looking behind him he saw the Mustang being hit and pushed by a larger vehicle just a couple seconds before he himself was hit by a similar one.

Michael braced himself inside the car as he was pushed, Kitt managed to free himself from the push and slid around as the larger car half struggled to stop itself and turn around on the uneven ground. taking advantage of those few seconds Kitt drove forwards and began pushing the car from a side through the terrain, he was having a hard time himself finding traction on the moist soft ground but being who he was he began gaining on it and managed to push the car over to where the ground had a slight drop that had been just big enough to tip the car haf on it's side which allowed the AI to fully tip it over and eliminate that threat at least for the time being.

Michael watched the large car on it's side in front of him and immediately grabbed a gun from the glovebox and tried to head out but the moment he tried to open the door he was stopped by the AI locking him inside.

"Kitt, open the door"

"I'm sorry Michael I cannot allow you to get out when there is this much chaos going on around us"

"I have to go help Mike, he's hurt and Daniel's going after him"

"KITT is going after him now we have to focus on stalling for time until the FBI arrives"

"FBI?"

"KITT just informed he called a squad when he arrived, they should be arriving in a little while now"

Michael was about to question the AI again when something like an explosion or strong impact resonated from the other side of the house, the man turned back to look at the AI directly to try and talk him into letting him out but the second he did look at him he felt like deep down the Trans am was begging him not to go after he had just gotten him back from being taken away from him; Add the fact that Kitt himself was no longer at full capacity after he chased after him before and now after being hit by such a big bulk of a car he knew the AI feared that he wouldn't be able to protect him again if he let him out considering everything that was happening.

With a resigned sigh Michael leaned back no his seat "Well if you're not gonna let me out then at least you gotta help me do something"

"Like what?"

"Well how about we go to KITT?"

"Where is he right now?"

"On the other side of the house, he just reached Mike now and is standing between him and Daniel although since the surrounding dampening field is still active I cannot tell you much more than that"

"Well then let's go after them"

"I don't think us interfering would do any good in this situation, it might put Daniel more on edge and incite a reaction we might not like"

"KITT's with him he can protect Mike if Daniel starts to shoot"

"I think something might be wrong with KITT, otherwise I doubt he would allow Mike to be standing out rather than keeping him inside him. I saw him get hit by another armored vehicle and since he did just finished being fixed I suppose there were some tests missing"

"Maybe...but still we can't just sit here and wait, at least let's try and keep the remaining gunmen focused on us so that they don't interfere with Mike and Daniel"

"That is a better plan"

"Well then let's get going"

Mike kept his eyes fixed on Daniel until KITT finally stopped backing up and pushing him farther away from the man; something was causing him to be on edge the moment the AI began backing up for no apparent reason, as he stood there he took notice of the car itself and it was just then that he saw the differences between the attack mode he remembered and this one. Looking at the car in more detail he also noticed a single dent on the otherwise pristine surface, located on the side of the car around where the door panel started was the damage he guessed had been caused by the armored vehicles Daniel had mentioned earlier.

Seeing some damage on the AI did not surprise him considering there had practically skipped all tests due to this emergency that they all had to tend to immediately.

"KITT?"

the AI then switched his attention to the man standing behind him "Yes?"

"Do you have some sort of plan now"

"I do, I called the FBI when I was approaching and they should be here shortly"

"Can't you tell how far away they are?"  
"I can't see anything through the dampening field that was set up around the immediate area, the best thing we can do it wait"

"But since we don't know how long they'll take or if they're even still on their way... if Daniel set up a perimeter like this he might've gotten people to keep watch and stop anyone from coming through"

"Well...if that is the case then we need to think of something now"

"It's not like you to go around unprepared KITT"

"Well I left with half my systems still coming out of reboot and without any proper testing, if you ask me I'd say it was sheer luck that I was able to get here and find you in the first place"

Taking a second Mike took notice of the way the AI was speaking as well as the fact that he was taking 'luck' as a factor in this situation "KITT are you...okay? like...could you maybe be you again?"

"I am, like I told Sarah I'll explain everything after we get this situation over with"

"Wait but how? I thought there was no way to get back the lost data from that particular algorithm"

"You think I wouldn't prepare for a worst case scenario? like I said, I'll explain everything in detail later. How is your leg?"

"I'm fine, what about you though? I see you have a dent on your side"

"A slight malfunction on the new setup for my Nano-skin, sadly the point where it hit has prevented me from being able to open my door properly to let you in and having you walk around to enter through the other door I fear would expose you to get injured again"

"Well...do you have a plan then?"

there was silence from the AI which told Mike that he was working on something at the time. Whatever things he could see that he couldn't gave him a wider range of information to think of something but the fact that it was taking him this long to even do that told him that they were in a tight spot.

KITT kept most of his sensors focused on Daniel as he stood some distance back with the gun aimed at him, even with the dampening field he was able to detect the Two Thousand standing on the opposite side of the house to him, he wished he could contact him to request some assistance considering his situation but that simply wouldn't be possible; Mike didn't know about what was going on with him internally but he was not about to go and give him any more reasons to worry.

On the back on his mind he got another set of warnings, the leak from his oil line was starting to lower his oil reserve faster than he had expected and to make matters worse the armored car he had knocked out earlier was moving again and heading towards him; piecing a together a plan with the little time he had left he set off a smoke screen in front of him to block Daniel's view, in those precious seconds he slid his rear end around to allow Mike to be able to walk around to his passenger's side and climb in. In the midst of chaos and low visibility with the smoke Mike started to half run half jump around the car a few steps before his leg gave out on him and he fell just short of the open passenger's side door clutching his head which of course caused some panic on the AI.

"Mike!"

"I'm fine I'm fine just...give me a minute"

As Mike half-ran half-hopped around the car he found himself feeling a sudden lightheadedness that made him lose his balance and fall to the ground which put some more unnecessary strain on his already injured leg, he heard KITT call his name as his fall had probably caused him to worry considering his current state; He tried to get up right away but his spinning head kept him glued to the ground and unable to look up until another approaching sound practically forced him to get up, in a split second an adrenaline rush gave him the strength he needed to get up and push the Mustang's door with enough strength to close it before jumping back not even a second before out through the thick cover of the smoke screen an armored vehicle came barreling through and pushed KITT out of his sight through the smoke just barely missing hitting him in the process.

The AI couldn't believe that he had been that distracted, his sole attention had been on Mike since his fall and that had now caused him to not only put him in danger by being unaware of his surroundings but also further damage his already broken oil line, luckily this new engine was efficient enough and sturdy enough to allow him to periodically cut off his own supply of oil at intervals to make sure that he was giving his engine just enough oil to function while also minimizing the waste as a result from the damage he had sustained.

As he finally broke free from the armored car's push he spun around and began thinking of a way to stop it permanently as fast as possible so that he could get back to Mike which he now detected was still on the ground while Daniel's form was stumbling about in the smoke.

Keeping the armored car's position locked with his scanner through the smoke he slid around the larger car using the fact that he was more nimble and quick to move to his advantage and shot his grappling hook at one of the roof rails where it managed to get stuck by one of it's spikes, securing that he started to reverse as he pulled the heavier car, rather than falling on it's side as he had hoped for it slid on the uneven surface for some distance before by some lucky chance something kept the car from sliding any further and KITT managed to pull it down, the thing fell sideways with the loud crunching of wood and leaves on the ground. His previous task done he focused back on Mike as the smoke began clearing, he still couldn't use simple visuals to find him but his scanner gave him a clear view of both him and Daniel yet what he saw then made a surge of electricity run through to his very core.

Mike finally managed to regain his footing after a few seconds, the smoke around didn't allow him to gather much information on his surroundings or Daniel's location which was enough to put him on edge. He looked around and tried to draw out the sounds coming from what he could only guess were KITT and the armored car that had pushed him before to try and listen if anything other than the cars was moving about and getting closer to him; despite his best efforts there was too much open space to pinpoint the source of any sound accurately and even though the smoke was starting to clear out thanks mainly to the movement of the cars around him he still was pretty much a sitting duck if anyone saw him.

As he looked around himself he got lightheaded again and had to stop as he closed his eyes for a second to try and brush away the feeling when the sound of the cars around him then stopped, he opened his eyes again just in time to hear a gun being cocked so instinctively he dropped to the ground as the sound of a gun firing rang somewhere near him.

Following his instinct he focused on finding the source of the shot based on how and where the bullet had landed, following that he saw through the remaining smoke the silhouette of a man that after a second and a rush of wind he managed to have a cleared picture of Daniel poting the gun in his direction again; wasting no time he jumped from his crouched position just as another shot landed where he had previously been standing, As he took a few steps back he found his already injured leg giving out on him as the strain from the force he had to pull to jump away from a crouch took its toll.

Failing at attempting to keep himself standing he ended up half kneeling on the ground clutching his injured leg as some fresh blood made its way out, his head started spinning and he broke out in a cold sweat as he struggled to keep himself conscious and alert enough to move if the situation called for it but as it stood he was practically a sitting duck to the man that was now slowly approaching him.

After taking his second shot and missing Daniel readjusted his aim just to see Mike stumbling back a few steps before falling down on his injured leg, he guessed that the aftermath of the blood loss was finally starting to take place and after straining himself this long he was starting to fall an easy prey to him; walking over he met the younger man's gaze with a smile "As I told you before, Knight, there was no way you or anyone could've stopped this plan, I took into account so many variables and countermeasures that it was nar perfect. So what you brought back that AI of yours but now that I see things with a little less panic I see that this allows me to not only tie loose ends with you but get back at that AI of yours from blowing the fruit of my labor to bits along with itself by simply killing you right now and nullifying it's primary directive. I have to thank you now for that to be honest, you've given me a better chance at revenge and even provided an AI with an even better shell to help finish off my research from where I stayed before"

Checking the gun to see if he had any ammo left he loaded the thing and took aim once more, being absorbed by his illusions of completing his plan and making the mistake of keeping his full focus on the man in front of him Daniel failed to hear an approaching engine until it was too close to even give him time to think of how to react, out through the thin layer of remaining smoke the rear end of the modified Mustang came sliding in a direct collision course with Daniel with an enraged roar from the engine as the AI pressed hard on the accelerator to be able to complete the drift he had initiated.

Everything moved in slow motion for Mike as he saw the rear end of the Mustang slide in from out of the remaining smoke and collide with Daniel, the bulky rear end moving at the speed that it was managed to be enough to knock Daniel down as well as push him with enough strength to make him slide some distance after falling to the ground where he would probably stay for a little while until he recovered from the impact.

KITT wasted no time acting as he convinced his own internal programing that this was the only course of action he could take to get to Mike safely, quickly accelerating to get to where both men were standing he made some quick calculations before using the brake to shift his weight to a side enough to cause his rear tires to slide on the already slippery terrain and then accelerating as he used counter steer to keep the angle he had acquired; he had managed to somehow catch Daniel off guard despite being out in the open and the feeling of his rear end hitting against the man and pushing him to a side as he knocked him down managed to make him internally flinch somewhat. Stopping his drift right after that he angled himself in a way that he had his passenger side door right next to where Mike was still crouching on the ground, opening the door he urged the man to climb inside which he did, Mike never thought he would be so thankful that KITT's attack mode placed him lower to the ground because at the time being he had to mostly use his upper body go climb in and use his good leg for some support since his lower body had lost much of its strength.

Eventually Mike found himself sitting inside the AI, KITT closed the door for him and immediately took off, despite being only half conscious Mike couldn't help but question what was going on "KITT, why are we driving away, what about Kitt and my dad?"

"The Two Thousand has contacted me, the FBI team that I called is arriving as we speak and he said that they would take care of finishing things off so that I could take you to get some much needed medical attention"

"Are you sure that they'll be fine back there? I thought there were some armored vehicles causing some trouble"

"those have already been taken care of, most of the guards have been already knocked out as well"

"What about Daniel, couldn't he take off after us in another car?"

"I...do not believe that would be an issue"

"KITT?"

before Mike could question any further the AI brought up an incoming call from Sarah who appeared on screen with a rather worried look "Mike! finally, KITT informed us of your condition, just try to stay awake he'll be taking you to the nearest place where you can get proper medical attention"

leaning his head back on the seat as another wave of lightheadedness came over him he simply answered with his eyes closed "I'm fine I just need to get this patched up and I'll be good"

"You've lost too much blood you need proper treatment, just stay awake you'll get there soon"

turning his attention slightly away from the road ahead of him KITT noticed his driver's breathing had slowed down a bit and his full weight was now completely on the seat, seeing this he became alarmed by the situation so plotting the fastest route to his destination he pushed harder on the accelerator and adjusted himself as he picked up sped, guided by long range sensors and satellite views he marked the line he would be following on the road to move around other cars and obstructions in the road trying to lose as little speed as possible, he was really pushing this new engine but seeing the situation he was currently on he had no choice; a warning popping up on the side of his view of the road brought crashing down the reality that he himself had one particular system of his damaged that played a major role in him, the warning displayed that he was dangerously low on oil despite having managed his use of the precious liquid by opening and closing the line to avoid as much loss as possible, the fact that he was pushing his engine harder meant that more oil was required which in consequence made him use up more of whatever oil he had left.

As he continued to drive he tried to figure out a way around this situation he found himself in, by his calculations the oil he had left would not be enough to get him to his destination but if he reduced the amount that he was currently providing his engine with by a little more then he could get closer to the distance he needed to travel and just hope that he could make it what little was left without causing much damage to his new engine. his full attention taken by oil management and the road ahead he adjusted the amount of oil distributed and kept pushing on. The distance got shorter with every passing minute and eventually he was under twenty minutes away from where he needed to be, he had started to directly pump pure oxygen into the cabin and it seemed to help his driver's situation somewhat but he still needed specialized attention; as he was forced to stop at a light he cursed his current state when his oil warning flashed again with the dreaded message that he had ran out of the much needed liquid, he only had what little drops were still on the pipe and he doubted that would be enough to get him to where he needed to get to without any incident.

Since starting the fast drive to his destination and pushing his engine he had felt the difference in both the performance of his engine as well as the change in the vibrations corresponding to some of the components not getting enough lubrication to move accordingly without getting worn out by the friction of their own movement, as he finally reached the end of his oil supply and took off from the light he had stop at he immediately felt a stronger change in the feeling of the engine, he decided that rather than taking it slow to cause less wear but take longer to get to his destination he pushed himself a bit farther to keep moving as fast as he could to get to his destination quicker.

Sarah sent KITT a short message saying that she had already alerted a medical team on the hospital he was driving towards and they were ready to receive him and take Mike in, keeping an eye on the road he kept most of his focus on monitoring Mike's vitals, he had passed out but with the increased oxygen he was pumping to the cabin he was sure he had bought some more precious time. As much as he had tried to manage himself considering the damage he had taken he had finally reached the point at which his engine was beginning to both stall and overheat due to the lack of oil, it stalled once and the AI was left half moving just on his own carried momentum until he was able to somehow push whatever little remaining oil was left on the line itself, with that push he managed to turn his engine back on with just a couple minutes to get to his destination.

Going around one more corner KITT finally had the hospital in view, he pressed on the gas to pick up seed faster now that he was almost there but instead the only thing he managed to do was stall his engine again, the overheat was bad enough on its own so instead he went with keeping his current momentum rather than attempting to turn it back on; going straight from the street into the emergency drop off where a group of doctors was already waiting, as he reached them the AI opened up the door before even coming to a full stop, because it swung upwards rather than out it allowed the medics to get his driver out faster and less than a minute after arriving they had taken him and disappeared through the doors.

The Mustang let himself sink lower on his suspension as he was finally over with the stress of dealing with his engine as well as the ticking clock for Mike, true he was still preoccupied with his current state but at least now he was getting proper medical attention and he literally couldn't do anything other than wait. Looking more into his system's diagnostics he found that the only important damage he had sustained was the damaged oil line but driving all the way here the way he did and pushing his engine had brought up some warnings that would be better to be looked into before making any important driving.

Seeing that he couldn't simply stay standing there blocking the emergency drop off he had to force himself again to try and get his engine to work to where he could at least get enough going to move a couple meters in front to an empty parking space, squeezing the last few drops remaining he managed to make the engine work again but he was well aware that this could cause some more serious damage so instead he simply pressed gently on the gas to start moving before turning the engine off and moving on his own with the little momentum he gathered from that, it was probably the slowest he had ever moved but in the end he managed to get out of the way and into the parking spot just as a call from the SSC came in.

"KITT I'll be heading your way in a few minutes, get in contact with the Two Thousand and see what's their status then call me back, I can't seem to get in contact with them for some reason but according to satellite image we were able to get it seems they're doing fine but still it wouldn't hurt to check again"

"Before you leave the SSC there is something I need to talk to you about"

"What is it?"

"When I was facing the armored cars that Daniel had I received a hit that caused some damage, I am mostly fine when it comes to my systems but that one hit damages my oil line, I was losing oil during the fight and then on my way here it ran out, luckily that happened when I was almost at the hospital but my engine still stalled twice and I forced it to work through the lack of oil which caused some wear and damaged a few of the internal components of my engine...I might need you to bring some spare parts in order for me to be able to drive away from here eventually"

the AI braced himself for the anger that was sure to come from the other side of the link, he was sure Sarah would not be pleased that he had overworked himself as he did after just being fully back as himself in a new body that he was unfamiliar with as well as a new engine that he had no experience on but to his surprise after a couple of seconds of silence there was only a sigh coming from the tech before she spoke

"Send me a report and diagnostics scan of your engine, we should have any parts you need around here somewhere considering we just got that engine built and tuned; I'll gather anything you need and take it with me when I start heading your way. Still, contact the Two Thousand and tell us what's their status"

"Will do, thank you Sarah"

After the line with the base ended KITT set himself to contact Michael, prodding his line to Kitt he only had to wait a couple seconds before getting a response

"Yes KITT?"

"Just wanted to check on you and Mr. Knight, is everything under control now?"

"Yes, the FBI team you called arrived about a minute after you left and since we took care of the bigger threat that were the armored cars the agents were able to make quick work of the remaining gunmen. Daniel has been taken into custody again and is being treated for some wounds he received, still, it looks like you did enough of a number on him to prevent any further attempts at escaping"

the AI stood quiet for a few seconds then "So...you know?"

"Of course I do, I have my own sensors ya know? but I don't blame you for the actions you took then...if you hadn't done what you did there then Mike could've been seriously injured"

"Well...if it was the right thing to do then why do I feel like it wasn't?"

"If I would have to guess I say that it could be your internal programming debating your own logic; considering one of your main directives is the preservation of human life I wouldn't find it hard to believe that it's still arguing over the decision to save your driver at the cost of harming another human...I still believe you did the right thing and you should stop giving that thought rounds in that processor of yours"

"I've tried to find the logic to my actions then and only way here but I couldn't figure it out"

"Look KITT I was able to see your actions through my sensors and let me tell you that what you did was maybe the only way to get Mike out of there safely and it's not like you killed anyone either, you just hurt Daniel a little bit and in my opinion he's not even someone worth your time worrying about...or have you forgotten what he did to you?"

"Of course not but...I can't help this feeling. I've replayed the situation in my processor from the moment I took Mike to when I got here and the only thing I was able to gather was that maybe there is some sort of malfunction with my systems"

"Where did you get that idea from?"

"Well firstly I went against my directive that dictates the preservation of human life and second as I was making my way here there was not a single moment in which any of my decisions were logical or rational"

"Did it not cross your mind that maybe the fact that your driver's life was in danger would have influenced your thought process and decision making?"

"It did but on other similar situations this was not the case"

"Other situation? was there another time in which Mike's life was in danger like this?"

"There was, not too long after we started officially working together we found ourselves dealing with Mike being injected with a poison that had no apparent cure other than one that would be provided by the person who had poisoned him after we completed a series of tasks.

We finished the tasks but the man with the antidote was attempting to escape, luckily we were able to track him but as I was driving to get to where he was Mike lost consciousness and his heart actually stopped on my passenger's seat for a while...during that time I was talking with Sarah and even as Mike laid there I was able to think properly and make an appropriate course of action that even led me to cross roads with Sarah as well as formulate a way to buy Mike more time. Back then we managed to bring him back for a while until we caught up to the guy with the antidote and well...the rest is history"

"Well...as you explained that I think I figured out why your reaction was different then and now and it's quite obvious if you think about it so I don't know why you were not able to figure this out on your own; to put it simply it's the simple fact that you've greatly evolved as an AI from how you were back then. That first time all your actions and thoughts were lead only by your programing dictating the protection of your driver and because of that everything you did there was guided rationally...this was the opposite, rationality took the backseat and instead you made your main and only priority to get Mike to where he could receive proper medical attention, even going as far as risking damaging yourself further to get there. I don't see this as a malfunction at all, if anything it's simple proof that you really are back to being yourself after your first ever encounter with Daniel" KITT stayed silent after that as he processed the older AI's words, the more he considered them the more he found some truth to them "Well I'm gonna go now help Carrie with the debriefing of what happened here, you keep an eye out for Mike, we caught everyone here but we don't know if there are any of them left around that could target him there"

"Will do, and thank you"

"Don't mention it"

For the following couple hours KITT did nothing but go through his systems and pinpoint exactly what had been damaged and what was the extent of the damage he had received, all in all the only serious thing on him was his broken oil line since without that he was pretty much a sitting duck; Keeping his sensors on Mike as he was moved to a recovery room after his injury had been treated he continued to work on his systems, fixing some of the things that he could until he hit a wall when trying to fix the bigger dent on his driver's side door that was preventing him from opening it, he had been trying to reset and relocate the nano-bots on that section of his body to try and restore the damaged area but so far the only thing he had managed to do was overheat the nano skin in that area as well as get a weird feeling of numbness.

Stopping his work for a few minutes he left his sensors watching over Mike in the background while he simply stopped doing anything and just sat there, with nothing occupying his processor he became hyper-aware of his surroundings as he turned inwardly towards himself without even looking at the outside world he stared to just let himself be absorbed by the information that was pouring in from his systems in some search for entertainment; the AI noticed then just how much he had truly missed the feeling of actually being able to feel his surroundings, there was a soft breeze that had started to pick up and it sent leaves from a nearby tree flying to where some of them ended on the Mustang's hood or roof, KITT felt the nearly imperceptible weight of said leaves as well as the wind that had pushed them there, the warmth from the sun overhead as it changed to just a cool sensation when a cloud drifted overhead at an angle that provided some shade on the area.

He remained like this for some time until he detected an approaching car stopping directly behind him, turning his attention back to the outside he was rather glad to see Sarah climb out of Zoe's red Focus.

Driving into the hospital's parking lot Sarah was able to find the AI rather quickly, turns out a highly modified black Mustang really stood out from your average daily driver. Stopping directly behind him she climbed out of the car and had a quick walk around the Mustang to check for any superficial damage.

"Hello Sarah, glad that you finally made it"

"Yeah, of course it took me way longer than the time you made in getting here but at least I'm here, I see you only have this one dent on your driver's side"

"I managed to fix the few smaller dents and scratched that I had received on my own but I was not able to fix that dent for some reason"

"Could be some trouble with the rearrangement of the new cable netting underneath or just some sort of glitch with the system but don't worry I'll give that a check later and see what's going on but for now first we need to move from here to one of the lower levels of the underground parking lot where it'll be unlikely for anyone to stumble across us while I work on fixing you"

"I agree, although there is one issue with that"

"What is it?"

"I can't turn my engine back on anymore without risking any further damage, especially now that it has cooled down"

"Well...that is a problem...okay I'm going to hook you up to Zoe's car to give you some momentum, just stay in neutral and we can go from there"

Attaching KITT to the smaller Focus after aligning the cars properly Sarah reversed to pull the Mustang out of his parking spot, the small car had a little trouble to get going and pull the weight of the much heavier car but once it started to move it became an easier task so once KITT was completely out Sarah disconnected the cars and maneuvered the focus so that she could attach the Mustang again but this time to the front of the car to be able to simply pull it down to the underground lot. Managing to hook the two in a way that would work Sarah began pulling the heavier car while KITT only steered to follow her tracks as they descended to one of the lower floors where Sarah set the AI up in a better parking spot that would allow her to work without any more problems before parking the focus in a place where should anyone come down to this floor of the parking lot her and KITT would not be out in plain sight.

Getting down from the Focus she opened the trunk and took out two boxes that contained a full assortment of spare parts and tools that she would be using to fix the AI's engine

"Okay KITT, I'll work on getting that dent on your driver's side fixed first since that way at least you'll be free of any superficial damage"

"How do you plan on fixing that? I have tried diverting the Nanobots myself and focusing on that area to work on but I was not able to do much"

"With this" from one of the boxes the Tech pulled out a device that was similar in shape to a speed gun before walking around the Mustang and sitting on the floor in front of the damaged area "This will rearrange the Nanobots forcefully to reset them to their original position which should make the dent pop back out and eliminate any damage done to your paint or anything else in that area. I will say though that you might find the feeling of the rearrangement to be somewhat unpleasant"

"I'll be fine, the sooner I can go back to normal the sooner we can go back to the SSC and at least be safe"

"Well then I'll start, it shouldn't take more than a few minutes"

KITT did nothing but wait and watch as Sarah turned on the device and brought it up close to the dent to where it was almost touching his surface, sure enough when she activated it the same hot sensation he had felt earlier when trying to fix it himself returned only that this time the numbness was replaced by an intense tingle focused on the particular area where the device was working on; the tech slowly moved the device along the edges of the dent in in a sort of outline before repeating the same motion as she moved closer to the center of the thing, as she moved the metal popped back and repaired itself until it was back looking like new after about fifteen minutes.

"Well that's been dealt with, how did it feel KITT?"

"It was just as you said, quite the unpleasant sensation, but now that it's done it feel much better than before"

"Glad to hear that, now would you mind opening your hood so I can take a look at the engine...well...nevermind, yeah just open the hood"

"Were you going to say something else?"

"Well...I was going to tell you to transform back to your normal form but then I remembered that your engine undergoes quite the change when switching modes and maybe I won't be able to reach some of the damaged parts if you switch"

"That would be correct, it would be better to stay in attack mode until the repairs on the engine are done as well"

"Yeah, so now that we're on topic, how was the new engine? this was the first time that you tried that right?"

"It was, the engine was...interesting to say the least, I noticed that there is a big difference in how this engine was tuned compared to the one I previously had"

"That it is, you old engine was already a one of a kind state of the art engine but this one would leave the old one in the dust. We decided to test out this new twin-charged concept and it seems that coupled with the rest of the modifications and new parts, components and special materials that engine turned out to be quite the powerhouse with the appropriate tuning"

"I noticed, together with the modifications I made to the attack mode it really feels a whole lot different than before"

"Yeah about that, when did you come up with those modifications?"

"Well I had been working on them for a while even before this whole Daniel incident happened and was planning to bring it up to you once I had worked out all the possible glitches or problems, I had managed to do just that shorty before all this so I couldn't bring it up to anyone but since I had tested it and created successful simulations before I knew that it would more than likely work if I deployed it now that it would be helpful to reach Mike faster in the situation they were in"

"But there was still a possibility that it wouldn't have worked right?"

"Well...there was but it was a relatively small percentage"

"small you say? define small" there was silence from the AI then as Sarah continued to search for specific parts in one of the boxes "KITT?"

"25% percent chance"

"25%?! KITT that's no small percentage at all, especially for you. you really took a big gamble there"

"I apologize for that but since it worked out in the end I guess it is fine...right?"

"Well yeah I guess but it's not like you to take such risks"

The AI remained silent after that and Sarah simply popped up the hood and began working on replacing the damaged parts as KITT instructed her of what parts exactly needed to be replaced, after a couple hours the Mustang told Sarah to take a break and maybe go upstairs to see how Mike was doing since he detected that he was beginning to wake up finally, taking the car's suggestion the tech simply placed the two boxes of spare parts inside the car and headed for the elevator that would take her to the hospital's main floor where she could then move to search for Mike.

The last thing he remembered was sitting inside the AI's passenger's seat looking at the blurring scenery out the window, he could faintly hear the somewhat alarmed voice of the Mustang calling him and saying some things he couldn't quite understand before he went completely out; He didn't know how long it had been since that moment but as he started to regain consciousness those were the first images that came to his mind before he started to actually pay attention to what his senses were telling him.

Slowly he started to become aware of not only his surroundings but the general discomfort that was assaulting his body.

Immediately he felt a more intense feeling coming from his leg and he was quickly able to recall that he had been shot and had sustained some other relatively minor injuries, before even daring to to open his eyes he took a couple deep breaths as he realized by the coldness of his environment, the light sheets covering him and the sterile smell all around that he was more than likely in a hospital; bringing one hand up he half regretted the movement as some pain coming from his shoulder made him slow down his movement, he had probably strained a muscle a bit too far when he stretched out to close the AI's door when that one armored vehicle came barging in through the smoke.

Bringing up his arm up to cover some of the bright lights that he knew came standard with any hospital room he cracked open one eye and took a quick look at his surroundings, there was really nothing much to look at other than your standard room, he was connected to an IV and had some bandages here and there with the main one being around his leg...naturally he guessed.

struggling a little bit against some of the discomfort he sat up in the bed, taking notice of where some of the bandages were wrapped around to estimate how much he could and couldn't move based on that, he could feel that the worst one was on his left side where the bandage that had been wrapped around there had some small stains of blood and it was then that he wondered when did he get such an injury; his train of thought was stopped by the sound of the door of the room opening and then closing, a couple footsteps rang out on the otherwise silent room and Sarah came out into view to see a rather tired and banged up looking shirtless Mike sitting on the bed.

Relief was just about the only thing she felt when she finally came face to face with Mike again, despite being in the condition he was the man was fully awake and aware of his surroundings as he sat on the bed, quickly approaching him she went straight for a hug that she kept rather short and gentle as she kept in mind the injuries he had sustained. Taking a step back she pulled over a chair and sat right next to the bed.

"Glad to see you're finally up"

"and I'm glad to see you're here not screaming at me for being reckless"

"Oh don't worry, that'll come once you're out of here"

"Gee thanks for giving me something to look forwards to" there was a moment of silence before realization hit him once he had gotten his thoughts back in order "KITT, where's KITT? is he okay?"

"Relax he's fine, I was working on him in one of the lower levels of the underground parking lot so as to not be bothered"

"Working on him? what happened? when I got in him he seemed pretty much fine"

"Well you wouldn't have known since you passed out rather quickly after getting on the car and KITT was not going to be giving you any more things to worry about than you already had so I'll just be straight with you: On his fight with one of the armored vehicles his oil line was damaged and he began to leak out oil quickly, long story short by the time he set out of the place with you in him his levels were just about empty and they eventually did run out a couple minutes before he arrived here; Stalling twice in that time and overworking his already overheated engine he managed to get you here safely but some of the parts in his new engine were damaged because of their continued use on low lubrication and overheated conditions so as it stands he is not able to really move"

"That stubborn AI why would he even do that, it makes no sense"

"only because you aren't seeing things from his perspective...anyway I started working on replacing some of the damaged parts already and maybe in two days time he should be ready to move again"

"Wait what about the oil line? are you able to fix hat here?"

"No but I can make something that'll make it last enough for us to drive back to base and I can fully replace the oil system there with something more durable and efficient"

"Two days huh…"

"Well you have to stay here for just about that long anyway so I think it's just fine"

"Why don't you tow KITT back home and work there on getting everything working again?"

"Well I could...but I don't think KITT would be too happy with that"

"Well what if I just ordered him to go, he's bound to listen to me"

"Under normal circumstances yeah he would but as it stands he has your wellbeing as his priority so he doesn't want to leave the hospital grounds in case any emergencies do happen"

With a sigh the man tilted his head up in frustration, leave it to the AI to learn from him the thick-skulled stubbornness he himself had when it came to certain things "So what about my dad? is he okay?"

"He's in better shape than you that's for sure, he got what little medical attention he needed back at the site where the FBI should be about to be done by now. I spoke to him just before coming here and by what he says it looks like all of Daniel's lackeys have been taken in and the man himself is being transported directly to one of the FBI's headquarters for some questioning"

leaning back down he closed his eyes as he was finally able to get some semblance of peace for the first time in a while "Well that's good...this shit show looks to be about over"

"So it would seem...you should get some more rest, I'll be instructing your dad and the Two thousand to head straight back to base while I stay around here to fix KITT. If you need anything just call either me or KITT and I'll be back up here" searching in one of her pants' pockets she pulled out Mike's phone that she had recovered from where the hospital staff had left all of Mike's belongings "You really need some sleep after all the crap that's been going on lately, just relax, I'm going to go back to work on KITT"

Standing up and pulling the chair to be slightly farther away from the bed she gout out of the room and started to head back down, with a quick call back to base to inform Billy and Zoe of the situation she couldn't help but allow a smile to pull at the corners of her mouth when the only response she got from the two when telling them that Mike was fine and everything was just about to be settled properly by the FBI was a relieved sigh from the.

The following day Sarah took most of the time to keep working on the AI, taking a few breaks in between to rest while going up with Mike who by now was undergoing a few tests to make sure that the only thing he would need to do after this would be to rest up and wait for his leg to heal naturally, down at the bottom of the parking lot KITT pulled the short end of the stick by having pretty much nothing to do most of the time, even while Sarah worked on him the assistance that the tech required from him was minimum and while she was up with Mike he really had nothing to keep him occupied, after a while of doing nothing and just checking his systems over and over again just to keep himself busy he decided to shut himself down for a little while and go into his recharge mode; keeping just his sensors on Mike and Sarah's surroundings active the AI shut most of himself down and went into a state of partial shutdown in an attempt to get some peace and quiet after the hectic and busy last couple weeks that he had been going through, seems like testing so many things out for the first time all together was more tiring than he could have anticipated. Pushing most systems aside or shutting them down he only kept his sensors on the perimeter of the hospital as well as manly focusing on Mike and Sarah before setting himself to be on partial recharge.

After spending most of the morning with Mike Sarah went back down to keep working on KITT, as she walked out of the elevator and down the one remaining flight of stairs she saw the AI simply sitting there with the scanner dimmed down and moving slowly which led her to guess that while she had been upstairs the Mustang had gone into some degree of partial recharge; taking her equipment out of the focus she placed it all in front of the AI and tapped a few times on the hood to try and get his attention, a second later and the scanner's intensity gew a bit and the pace at which it moved increased slightly.

"Hello Sarah"

"Hey KITT, you mind popping the hood open? just gotta replace a few more parts and after that I can work on a temporary fix for your oil line that can at least get us back to base safely and then get to fixing that there"

without another word the hood of the modified Mustang clicked open, pulling it up and following KITT's pointers the tech began with the final tweaks required to fix or replace the few parts that remained.

By the time night fell Sarah was done with the repairs on the engine and after getting a few tests done internally by the AI he confirmed that everything seemed to be back in proper working order...well everything except for his oil line of course, having fixed his engine though he was able to finally switch back to his normal mode. Taking a few steps back Sarah watched as KITT finally switched from his attack mode back to normal mode and she found it rather relieving to see that the transformation sequence was working perfectly, panels moved and reformed smoothly and rearranged themselves to build the shell of the GT5oo Mustang once more.

"Well that's going to be it for that, now I'll just make a few quick repairs to seal your oil line and then we should only need to wait for Mike to be able to leave"

"Thank you for your work Sarah, I really appreciate it"  
"Don't even mention it KITT"

"Have you contacted the FBI to check on things on their end yet?"

"Yeah I have, it seems that most if not all of Daniel's lackeys have been properly processed and faced charges for treason amongst other things while Daniel himself is still on the FBI offices under better vigilance while things get settled before he can be transported"

"Do you know when is his transportation schedules?"

"well...no, not really, why?"

"Well considering what happened last time I would like to serve as an escort for that to ensure that this time things do go as planned"

"I mean...I don't see a problem with that but I don't know what the FBI officers will say"

"I doubt they'll be accepting despite receiving free help, with your permission Sarah I'll be contacting Carrie for the details and serve as an escort regardless of the others' opinions since they've already showed once that they are not capable of handling Daniel properly"

"Well I don't have any complaints but that's mainly because I agree with you so feel free to contact Carrie then, though I will only allow you to go if when the transport date arrives I have your oil line working as it should again since I don't want to risk any more damage to the new engine...especially since we really haven't had the chance to test it properly"

"I believe that would be the only logical thing to do. When will Mike be free to go?"

"Well everything's coming out fine so maybe by tomorrow morning we can go back"

"I see…"

"Well, I'll start working on the temporal fix for that now, should be done in an hour or two if everything works properly"

The following morning Sarah drove the focus to the exterior parking lot near the entrance and KITT parked himself in front of the doors, after a little while both her and Mike walked out, the latter with the aid of some crutches that he had been instructed to use until his injured leg was fully healed. As the two walked around the car KITT opened the passenger's side door and allowed Sarah to take the crutches in the focus, in the span of a couple minutes both cars were making their way back to the SSC. Sitting on the passenger's seat of the Mustang Mike looked around the car aimlessly before finally opening up to speak.

"So...KITT I-"

"You have questions"

"Well...yeah, I wanted to ask sooner but I didn't have the chance to and right now we have some good free time"

"Well, what questions do you have?"

"For starters how is it that you're...well...you again after Sarah even confirmed that there was no way to recover the data that had been lost which was what made you...well you"

"Well that's because normally it would've been impossible to get that data back but back then before I was blown up by Daniel's AI I dumped most of my data and core information into my core and stored the more important parts of myself in a hidden section of it in case worse came to worse and Daniel still managed to get a hold of my shell but this secluded part of the core cannot be accessed or even detected by any exterior party which meant that this was also a gamble that I took in which I ran the risk of not being able to be myself ever again"

"You're not one to make something if the odds are against you though so even though it was a gamble the odds couldn't have been that bad right?"

"You would think that but really the chances of my recoded self finding this secluded section of the core were just shy of ten percent"

"Ten? that's no gamble at all KITT that's more leaving it to luck than anything else"

"Well that was the only way to at least make sure that Daniel wouldn't get access to some of the important data in case worse came to worse, luckily the safety lock guarding this separate area of the core was detected and breached by my recoded self and triggered the reconstruction of certain areas of the code to incorporate the missing pieces, that's why the reboot Sarah did that morning took so long to be completed"

"So you had time to really think this through in the span of what...a couple seconds?"

"Something like that"

With an amused smile the man took a deep breath as he looked out the window "Okay next thing on the list, I know you have some upgrades since I was around when this new body was completed, what do you think of them? oh and also, what was up with that modified attack mode?"

"I've experiences some of the new modifications and I am still testing things here and there with the new systems internally but I will say that the modification that stood out the most in relation to my previous shells is the new engine. Right now even in normal mode it already feels different...if I'm honest this is the first time that I've driven with this new engine"

"Wait what? you drove from the SSC to get to where I was didn't you?"

"I did but I did so while in my attack mode which by the way it looked different than before because I did some slight modifications to improve a few things when considering aerodynamics"

"isn't your engine in this and in attack mode very similar? I know that before a few things changed and it ended with a better response, acceleration and a few other things but it was never a massive change"

"This time around Sarah, Zoe and Billy came up with an interesting and revolutionary way to allow the engine to undergo some more drastic changes when switching modes although it did come at the cost of only being able to transform while standing still with the engine off to allow it to undergo said changes"

"And what are those major changes? is the new power output with it really that much better?"

"It increases considerably, as you know in my normal mode I have a highly modified, supercharged Shelby GT500 engine but when changing into my attack mode the engine undergoes several changes, which amongst the several added and replaced parts for better handling and tolerance of increasing temperatures includes a more capable fuel injection system as well as the addition of a high capacity turbocharger...in essence my supercharged engine becomes a super high RPM Twin-charged engine that generates most of its power above the eight thousand RPMs with a redline of eleven thousand and a limit of fourteen thousand"

Mike sat in silence half dumbfounded with this new piece of knowledge, from his time before joining the SSC back in the day he used to race in Vegas and he had a good amount of car knowledge when it came to the mechanical part so hearing this new bits of knowledge and knowing what those numbers meant he simply was at a loss of words; truly Sarah, Billy and Zoe had managed to engineer a way to make the changes in the engine when KITT switched modes while at the same time turning the engine into one hell of a powerhouse "KITT show me, I want to see this new engine for myself now that you say that, it sounds incredible but I just can't imagine how it's possible"

"I would gladly show you but as it stands I'd rather wait and show you some other time"

"And why is that?"

"Because right now my oil line is not entirely fixed and I would like to avoid any unnecessary strain that could cause it to break again before reaching the SSC, once that is fixed I can really show you what it's like"

"Oh yeah...forgot about that, you shouldn't have pushed yourself that much by the way, Sarah told me everything"

"Well would you rather have me stopped in the middle of the road where my engine first stalled with you passed out and losing blood or receiving some much needed attention at a hospital?"

"Well...okay nevermind that just...don't pull something like that again?"

"I won't if you don't give me a reason to"

With a smile on his face the duo fell silent then for a while before eventually falling back to some questions from Mike to the AI regarding some of the new functionalities, this made time go by faster in Mike's opinion and before noon they were getting close to the base's perimeter.

Upon entering the base they were received by Billy, Zoe and Michael, Kitt was parked next to the gimbal and allowed the Mustang to park directly in his place, getting out of the car he was helped into the couch on the side of the room until a couple minutes later Sarah came in with the crutches in had after parking the focus elsewhere. The group began talking about the events of the whole situation and the end result of it while behind them KITT sat quietly, he had been lost in his own train of thought when a prompt from one of his internal communication lines blinked, turning towards it he found it that it was none other than the other AI sitting right next to him.

"Well since last time we saw each other we had to deal with a rather unpleasant situation and last time we talked it was mostly all business so let me welcome you back properly"

"Thank you, glad to see that you made it back in one piece"

"Got a few scratches and bumps here and there but your friends up there made quick work of them, what about you?"

"Sarah repaired my engine while we were waiting for Mike, all that's left it to get my oil line replaced with a better one"  
"Ah, I see...well at least it's over, heard that the FBI took proper care of everything this time"

"mostly...what are you and Mr. Knight going to do about the fact that your house as been damaged after this ordeal?"

"I'm sure we can figure something out, we know enough important people to be able to get back into hiding somewhere else, With some luck we'll be back to a peaceful, slightly boring routine"

"If that is what you wish then I can only witsh you two some luck in getting things to move smoothly"

"Thanks, still, if you, Mike or any of your friends need any help don't hesitate to ask, you know where to contact me now anyway"

"Thank you, I will take it into consideration"

later that same day and KITT was sitting sideways as the gimbal was half turned to allow easy access to his undercarriage where Sarah was working now, while she did that KITT set himself to the task of contacting Carrie and after two failed attempts she finally answered on the third one.

"Hello?"

"Carrie, this is KITT"

"Oh...hi KITT, is something up?"

"No not at the time, I heard the FBI took proper care of the people that were helping Daniel"

"Yeah, they've all been transported by now or are in the process of being transported"

"All but Daniel himself if my information is correct"

"Yeah we're...we're still moving some things around for the charges he's facing but we should be able to move him in about two days time, why the sudden interest?"

"Well you'll have to forgive me for this but I thought that it would be better if I went in place of one of the escorts for Daniel's transport, after what happened the last time I feel like this would be a proper safety measure"

"Well you would be good insurance but I would need to talk it over with the other directors"

"To be honest with you it wasn't really a question, that was why I was apologizing earlier, I thought it would be better for you to know but regardless of your answer I will be serving as an escort for the transport vehicle"

"Oh umm...personally I'm not against it but I will have to tell the other directors about this, if you are going to go regardless though I guess I should start arranging the convoy with you in mind as well as informing the people that will be there about you so that they don't think of you as a threat"

"I appreciate the help Carrie"

"It's not a problem, honestly I'm kind of relieved now since with you in tow I doubt we'll get any inconvenients like last time"

"I assume that he is still in the same headquarters where you are located correct?"

"Yeah he's here, just be sure to be here around noon in two days' time"

"I'll be there, thank you again for the help"

"Anytime KITT"

With the call finished the AI informed Sarah of his plan privately, agreeing to let him go considering that by then he should be fully fixed the tech only asked of him to keep a live transmission open to them at all times in case anything did go wrong as some sort of insurance of their own. Later that same day Mike managed to find out the AI's plan and for a while he was immersed in a discussion with Sarah and the car to allow him to go with KITT on the escort mission; both the tech and the Mustang refused because of two simple facts, first Mike was still under orders to rest and not move around until his leg was completely healed and second if things went downhill again to a point where KITT couldn't handle them then at least he could manage an escape plan or course of action on his own without endangering his driver's life anymore. After a couple failed attempts the man finally gave up and pretty much resigned himself to have to stay at the base to sit and watch like the others.

Almost by the end of the night that same Day Sarah had finished removing the old oil line and replacing it with a new, more resistant one that was sure to be able to hold on properly against the higher stress that came with pretty much any component in the AI, the following day was uneventful enough as Billy and Zoe focused on filing some of the reports from the last 'mission' that was technically not really an official mission but they had decided to count it as such anyway. Sitting in his place KITT spend most of that day thoroughly going through all the new systems and creating simulations so that if he did end up needing to use them the next day on the escort then at least he could have an idea of how things would go, lost in that process eventually it became nightfall and even though he wanted to get a few more things ready Sarah all but made him stop to give his processor a little time to relax, rather reluctantly he obeyed and ended up setting himself to recharge mode for the remainder of that night.

the next morning everyone was already up and moving around by ten as they got everything ready to let KITT go off on his own, the possibility of allowing the Two Thousand to go with him was played around with for a while but in the end KITT decided that going on his own would be the best course of action to efficiently act in case of an emergency as well as to minimize the chances of anyone getting hurt now that he was at nearly full capacity with the upgrades that gave him a better resistance to most physical attacks or weapons.

Eventually the Mustang was finally ready to go, preparations had taken a bit longer than expected so he would have to go in attack mode to compensate for the lost time in speed; turning the gimbal around the AI switched modes and fired up his engine, even from here Mike stood behind him he was able to really hear the difference with the new engine and that only made him want to see for himself how powerful it really was.

as soon as KITT got on the main highway he plotted the fastest route to where he needed to get, he was going to be cutting it quite close with the times even if nothing got in his way but he was going as fast as he could without really pushing himself to the limit like when he drove to the location where Mike and his dad were to keep a reasonable safety margin; the powerful engine seemed to emit a sound of released pressurized air whenever he let off the gas and as soon as he stepped on it again the immediate response came with the characteristic whine of the supercharger, yes, this really was an incredible engine even to him and he was looking forwards to testing how good it really was later down the line but for now he just had to keep his focus on the task at hand.

Carrie got out of the building into the back area where the transport team that was going to take Daniel was finishing preparations, it had been ten minutes past the time that she had told KITT to get there but since the directived hadn't agrees with this in the first place she doubted that they would let her hold back the departure a couple more minutes. With a sigh she called for another group that was waiting inside the building and a couple minutes later Daniel came out being escorted by three men, she directed them towards the van where they would be sitting just as a powerful engine made itself know and soon enough a black modified Mustang with a scarlet red scanner came driving around the corner which made Daniel pale a couple shades as he turned to look at the FBI agent.

"What the hell is this? what is it doing here?"

"KITT will be serving as another escort for your transport vehicle, we don't want another incident to happen and after last time we've learned a thing or two about being cautious"

"It can't be here, the board didn't mention anything about this"

"That is because they did not approve him of fulfilling this job but as it stands not even I was able to dissuade him from coming, if he's here then it's on his own accord and under his own terms, don't try anything and we'll make sure that you get to your final destination safely rather than with another hit to add to the last one you got for trying to go after Mike"

cursing under his breath Daniel was walked in front of the AI on his way to the transport van, the red scanner was tracking back and forth slowly and coupled with the menacing sound of the idling engine and the more aggressive look that the attack mode gave the car the man couldn't help but feel intimidated after witnessing first hand that in his eyes the apparently harmless AI was no longer that harmless after all…

Everything being set up the convoy left the building to their five hour trip, KITT had taken a spot right next to the van and was sure to keep his scanners on a wider range that would alert him should anything out of the ordinary or suspicious were to happen.

Back at the SSC the group sat on the main chamber half watching the live transmission from KITT displayed on the main screen, Mike sat on the couch on the side of the room still pouting over the fact that he hadn't been allowed to go but at least he could see what was happening in real time through the live feed.

The first two hours of the trip went by uneventfully with the AI only switching positions with either of the other two escort vehicles every now and then to be either on the other side of the van or behind it, at the present time he was driving behind the van almost on autopilot as the speed he was driving at was just a slight bit slower than your average highway speed; keeping most of his attention on monitoring his surroundings as well as the road ahead he noticed that there had been a car that seemed to be following them for a good distance so deciding to be safe rather than sorry he went over a full scan of the car and just a couple of seconds after he was glad that he had checked.

The car following them some distance behind had four men of which three were carrying guns and adequate protection, in addition to that he detected an outgoing radio signal that connected to two other cars that were ahead of them.

Deciding that the information he had gathered was more than enough he contacted Carrie privately through her earpiece where she sat in the transport van, she quickly shared this information with the other two escort vehicles and even sent a call back to headquarters which immediately responded by saying they were going to be sending a squad for reinforcements as well as a chopper to keep track of everything. Knowing all this the AI decided to tell the other escorts himself to keep formation and acto oblivious to their pursuers in order to spring a trap themselves and catch the enemy off guard.

For the following few miles nothing changed until finally the vehicle behind them sped up until it as just about two car lengths away from KITT, the AI went ahead first and made a faint motion to switch places with the escort car on the right to which their pursuers took the chance and one of them rolled down his window and began shooting.

The second KITT saw the man get halfway out the window he performed a hard braking maneuver that within seconds placed him behind the pursing car, through his sensors he detected that the two cars that bad been ahead of them were slowing down to allow their convoy to catch up so he had to make quick work of things now in order to not be overpowered or outmaneuvered later; taking advantage of his new position the AI made use of one of his newly perfected abilities and quickly moving so that he was next to the pursuing car he took aim and shot a modified spearhook that latched itself onto the undercarriage of the other car. Having secured that link KITT made use of his immediate acceleration to pull the other car from the side and make it lose balance as well as speed to the point where he released the spearhook at the precise moment just before the car his pursuers were in flipped and this only caused the car to lose control and fall into a ditch on the side of the road from where he was sure it was not going to be coming out of without the help of the FBI squad that had been dispatched to them from another location that was closer to them than the place they had originally left from.

Punching the accelerator he caught back up with the convoy just as the two other cars that had been ahead caught up with them, from one of the cars on the passenger's side a man rolled down the window and aimed his gun at one of the other escort cars before starting to shoot; KITT moves quickly and used his quick acceleration and torque to push the escort car out of the range from the bullets and positioning himself in its place, the driver of the car in front of him quickly catching up in his actions and accelerating himself so as to not leave the work of pushing the car to the AI. At the very edge of his sensors KITT detected a bigger group of cars as well as a chopper, the cavalry had finally arrived and that gave the AI the green light to start taking out the two cars attacking them.

Quickly telling Carrie to tell her men to stand down the Mustang charged up and in a matter of a few seconds the midnight black surface of the car began popping light shimmers in a few parts around the general surface of the car, being done with the charge KITT quickly maneuvered to position himself in front of one of the pursuing cars before drastically braking just enough to collide with the car behind him; the second both cars collided electricity crackled from the AI to the car behind him in a shower of sparks, the pursuing vehicle then veered to a side as it was shut down by the impact letting the convoy put some good distance in no time thanks to the good speed they were traveling at since the pursuit started.

The Mustang then turned his attention to the one remaining car on the opposite side of the van from him, from what he could tell one of the men sitting on the backseat was attempting to reach the van to open one of the doors so before that could happen KITT decided to make quick work of them by maneuvering around the van an the other escorting vehicles in order to be behind the last car, deciding to stop prolonging this chase anymore he deployed his grappling hook and got it stuck to the rear axle of the car ahead, with sudden hard braking he pulled on the other car with enough force to take the whole rear axle clean off and leaving the car to drag its rear end along the road until it finally stopped just as a couple of the FBI quad cars that had been called came into view in the distance. Three cars down there was only one more thing to take care of.

KITT pressed down on the accelerator in a way that would've previously left him spinning his wheels in search for traction for a couple seconds but now with all the improvements to pretty much every one of his systems he took off straight off the line without leaving a trace on the road and picking up speed at an incredible rate; flying past the transport van and the escort cars with it he took the next exit off of the highway and headed straight for another van that he could only guess had been parked there as another getaway vehicle, there was only a driver sitting inside and by the looks of it KITT guessed that he would be too distracted to notice his approach so instead of getting ready for another pursuit he slowed down a little bit and from a distance took aim with his spikes, stopping where he knew he would be out of sight he shot out both right side tyres from the van before taking off as he sent Carrie the location of the van from which the driver was now climbing out of in confusion as to why two of his tyres had been blown out. Getting back on the highway he caught up with the transport van while using satellites to see what was the status of the cars he had taken out.

Way in the back the first car that had ended in the ditch besides the rod had be surrounded and by now the people that had been inside were about to be taken away by the FBI, the car he had shocked was surrounded and the agents were working into getting the men to get out of the car and by now the FBI cars were about to get to the last car he had left without a rear axle, from there he saw a small group break off to presumably go after the van now that Carrie had probably given its location to the rest of the FBI agents that were around. The chopper stayed behind flying around the general area where the three cars had been taken out and at least for the time being it looked like there was no longer a threat to the convoy, he couldn't be sure of that though so he would still drive with the convoy until they got to their destination just to be sure.

Back in the SSC the second some activity started to show up everyone's eyes became glued to the screen, Mike had tried to go and open a chat line to KITT but was stopped by Sarah telling him to let the AI handle things on his own so once again the man ended up reluctantly sitting back down on the desk and settle to just watch and of course that by the time the exchange was over he was more than just a little surprised to see the Mustang take out each of the three cars in the most efficient and safest way for the passengers while at the same time protecting not only the van but also the other escort vehicles and their drivers from getting injured before going out and taking out the van that was waiting further up ahead. Everyone in the room had been quite impressed with the AI's performance including the Trans am sitting behind everyone.

For the convoy the rest of the journey to their destination went without any more incident, upon their arrival a team got out of the building to receive the van, a couple guards immediately went over to the open van door to escort Daniel out of it and into the building where he would finally be processed; KITT sat right behind the vas as this whole process took place, walking away from the van Daniel turned behind him to see the AI, scanner tracking back and forth camly and not even a single scratch on him despite the skirmish he had gotten into on the way here, to say Daniel was pissed would've been an understatement but as it stood there was nothing he could do to get out of this one...it was finally over.

after he was sure that there as nothing more that he could do the AI just send a message to Carrie telling her that he was going to be taking his leave, reversing out of the place KITT wasted no time in going back to the highway the way he had come to start heading back to base, he drove past the few remaining FBI cars that were still around and was glad to see that they had everything pretty much under control; finally with no worries clouding his processor the Mustang was able to focus only on driving and for the first time since being brought back he found himself just straight up enjoying the drive back.

The following morning held a cool air, dark clouds hung in the sky which signaled that there was an approaching storm but so far not a drop had fallen from the sky, out in the hangar of the SSC everyone was working on finishing up a few tests on KITT who right now laid in wait of instructions facing the partially open hangar doors. Mike sat on the car's driver' seat, having convinced Sarah that he could still drive for at least a little bit and that he really wanted to check out KITT's new engine himself; the AI was already in attack mode and ready to take off for the speed test that they were about to do while a giddy looking Mike Knight seemed to not be able to wait a couple more minutes for the preparations to be ready.

Finally Mike closed the door of the car and turned on the engine that came to life with a menacing roar, he revved it up a couple times and found himself smiling at the sound of not only the supercharger but the sound of the released pressurized air from the turbo, it really was a unique sound that he had no idea could actually come from a car. The second Sarah gave him the all clear Mike all but smashed the gas down to the floor which caused the car to take off instantly with godly amounts of grip and with such an acceleration force that threw the man back into his seat even with the passenger restraint system being active, the unreal sound of the engine filling the cabin with the whine of the powerful turbocharger as everything not in sight of the windshield turned into a blur as the car shot out of the hangar where Mike finally let go of the gas to be received by the sound of the turbocharger leading off as he only remained with a giant smile plastered on his face.

"Well KITT that was nothing short of incredible, just...amazing"

"I'm glad you approve, now all you have to go is get used to the feeling of the stronger G-force"

"Yeah, that's not gonna be problem if working on that means I get to do more of this"

the AI couldn't help but get a smile of his own internally at the sight of his driver doing well and enjoying himself this much just for getting to drive again, it made him glad that everything had gone well in their last mission "Glad to see that you're okay Mike"

Looking down from the open tarmac ahead he turned his gaze to the AI's voice modulator, the red dot leaned slightly to the left "Yeah...yeah it's good to be back, but more than anything I'm glad you're back, like really back as yourself KITT...we really all thought you were gone for good"

"Then you're not giving me enough credit I feel like, it will take more than just an explosion to get rid of me"

taking the humor for what it was Mike couldn't help but let out a laugh as he gave the steering wheel a couple pats "I guess you're right KITT...you really are..."


End file.
